Yahoo Movies Director Tom Hooper only finished making the 'Cats' movie the day before the premiere
Tom Hooper really pushed finishing the Cats movie to the wire, then.
The director told reporters at the film's premiere in New York last night, that he'd put the final touches to the musical at 8am the previous morning, following a non-stop 36-hour push.
Asked whether he was happy with how the film's visuals had turned out, he told Variety on the red carpet: “Yeah, I finished it at 8am yesterday after 36 hours in a row putting the finishing touches on.
Read more: Rebel Wilson loved reaction to Cats trailer
“So I'm very happy to be here with it fully finished. We'll let the audience decide, but I think we've come a long way since out first trailer.”
When you’re up at at 5am still writing that essay due at 9 #CatsMovie
pic.twitter.com/s9ekUwmim5— Sleighvid Opie 🎄 (@DavidOpie) December 17, 2019
The comment clearly related to the early, erm, 'interest' in how the first trailer looked, which went thoroughly viral.
Read more: Scherzinger gutted at Cats sub
Movie fans relished the social media scrum to brand the first visuals 'a demented dream ballet', as stars from Judi Dench to Idris Elba were transformed into cats for the Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation.
But now people have seen the movie, there are dribs and drabs of reaction coming in on Twitter ahead of the full reviews.
The CATS movie is the strangest, most bewildering, queerest, magical, and spectacular cinematic experience I have ever had. I am not sure what just happened but I know that it was something worth experiencing. pic.twitter.com/6dRBzhuhXo
— Alan Henry (@AlanHenry) December 17, 2019
Uh, #Cats is kinda great? Everything that seemed weird in the trailers just melts away when you’re watching the film. It’s magical and just plain works with the sole exception of Taylor Swift’s original song about the cats devouring the corpse of an old woman who died in her flat
— ben mekler (@benmekler) December 17, 2019
i just want to stand on a table in the middle of the cats afterparty and scream “HOW CAN ANY OF YOU EAT AND DRINK LIKE EVERYTHING IS NORMAL AFTER WHAT WE JUST SAW?”
— keaton kilde (@keatonkildebell) December 17, 2019
It brings me no pleasure to report that CATS is way too horny for its own good
— CarolineD Framke (@carolineframke) December 17, 2019
somehow was unaware that Ray Winstone played Growltiger in CATS and let me tell you I hooted and hollered
— David Sims (@davidlsims) December 17, 2019
Having seen #CatsMovie, the Academy's failure to include 'Beautiful Ghosts' on the original song shortlist was a bad move. Obviously, voters left it off because 'Cats' hadn't screened yet. But the song -- a bookend to 'Memory' -- is great. I already can't get it out of my head.
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) December 17, 2019
And it feels like the (very recently) finished product is every bit as hallucinatory as we'd anticipated.
The star-laden movie – which features Dench and Elba alongside James Corden, Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and Royal Ballet star Francesca Hayward in the lead – tells the story of the tribe of cats known as the 'jellicles', lifted by Lloyd Webber from T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
It lands in the UK on December 20.
