Andrew Lloyd Webber Confirms CATS Film Adaptation 2019 Release Date

On Friday, Andrew Lloyd Webber has confirmed that the film adaptation of CATS is scheduled to be released on Friday, December 20, 2019.

Universal Pictures and Working Title's CATS is a most-unexpected film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's beloved smash musical "Cats" and the poems from "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," by T.S. Eliot. Oscar®-winning director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl) brings astonishing new technology to transform his performers, who will be choreographed by visionary movement pioneer Wayne McGregor, CBE. Acclaimed casting director Lucy Bevan is casting the film adaptation.

The epic will be produced by Hooper and Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, as well as fellow Les Misérables producer Debra Hayward-who brought the idea to Working Title. CATS will be produced by Working Title Films in association with Monumental Pictures and The Really Useful Group and executive produced by three-time Oscar® winner Steven Spielberg, Lloyd Webber and Angela Morrison.

One of the longest-running shows in West End and Broadway history, "Cats" received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981-where it played for 21 record-breaking years and almost 9,000 performances. The groundbreaking production based on T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" was the winner of the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983 the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and ran for an extraordinary 18 years.

Cats made its return to Broadway this summer at the Neil Simon Theatre and was also recently staged at the London Palladium for a limited 12-week run, starring former Pussycat Doll singer Nicole Scherzinger in the role of 'Grizabella'.