'Cats' Visual Production In Trouble Early On | THR News - video Dailymotion

Signs of trouble occurred early on.

Transcript

00:00If you're like me, you saw Cats over the holiday break either because you love

00:09musicals, are a Taylor Swift fan, or you were just curious after all the social

00:14media backlash surrounding the movie. Well, you know what they say about

00:17curiosity and Cats. The star-studded movie bombed at the box office, facing a

00:21loss of 50 to 75 million dollars, against a budget of roughly a hundred million

00:26dollars before marketing. But it turns out that Cats faced visual problems

00:29early on in production, and when the first trailer arrived over the summer, the

00:33backlash was immediate. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that there was some

00:37redesign work done at this point, including on James Corden's character

00:41Bustopher Jones, who was given a more, quote, comedic look, with a bigger mustache

00:45and longer hair.

00:46Right, well that's not going to work, is it? That's what I say to you? Cross pause.

00:52Sources also say that in the time leading up to the film's release, visual effects work

00:56was behind schedule. The sound mix started late, and director Tom Hooper himself

01:00admitted that the movie was finished less than 48 hours before its red carpet

01:04premiere.

01:05I judge a cat by its soul. I've got plenty of soul.

01:10Meanwhile, Hooper, who was described as a very exacting director, kept adjusting the

01:15effects up until the film's release. One source tells THR, there were no content

01:19changes, I don't think. Explaining that the additional week of work was about

01:22refining mostly small things. Refining the amount of the actor's performance you might

01:27see, refining lighting, refining integration. This was the new version Universal sent to

01:31theaters on December 20th, as cats opened in theaters domestically. The studio did not

01:36respond to a request for comment.

01:38For much more on this story, head to THR.com. Until next time, for The Hollywood Reporter News,

01:42I'm Tiffany Taylor.