Cats - The Movie

Any evidence of her singing out there

And that's me out. I like most of the rest of the cast, but unfortunately I can't think of many people I find more irritating than Rebel Wilson...

Oh for f***s sake. That's me out. Thanks Cats. ✌️✌️

Oh God 😑

As a film-maker or personally? I thought The Damned United was good, although I've been indifferent to his films since then. It's hard to believe he once directed some episodes of Byker Grove.

Waiting for Marti Pellow to be announced then haha.

He's a terrible pop star. 😂

I’m a big Cats fan. Beyond me how this is gonna turn out though. I’ll wait and see and hope to be pleasantly surprised!

Tom Hooper got the job because of his ideas for the project, about how it could translate to the screen and how it should be done. Obviously the studio liked his ideas and chose him above others. I doubt he's panicking at all.

I have never seen anyone understanding so little about this artform on film. Les Miserables was nothing more than of a bunch of actors embarrassingly trying to act in spite of song, during a live theatre performance on a street, a showcase of a director falling into many pitfalls very hard. He had no clue about pacing of scenes, the given of sung thoughts and the difference between that and dialogue and the necessity of a non-literal approach as this artform per definition is not.

This butchering validated my comment already, but this frantic casting spree is already disrespectful too.

It can't be worse than Les Miserables. If there is any aspect they will treat differently from what they did in that film, it will already be better. So that's a relief.

Tom Hooper doesn't understand this artform on film. He doesn't understand the given of sung thoughts on film and the importance of actually combining acting with singing, acting through song. Instead, in Les Mis he chose "acting in spite of song". Sometimes even speaking 4 words and use a long vibrato on the 5th. This makes the acting insincere and the singing insincere. Sung thoughts are never this literal because this artform per definition is not. Solo numbers are mostly about sung thoughts so they should never be treated literal. The film needs to rise above literality because the song does too. Sung dialogue is more literal but also needs to be embraced in order to make it feel organic. Speaking 4 words and use a long vibrato on the 5th is not raw or organic. The melodies and notes are actors themselves. Apologizing for the material by acting out and speaking through it and constantly switching between acting and singing makes it cringeworthy. Tom needs to learn how to get away from this overemoting. The music and notes already contain a very high level of drama and storytelling, it's written that way for a reason. There is no need for overplaying/overacting each syllable in between each note. That undermines the material and artform. Especially when a director approaches it too literal and is scared for sung thoughts that take away from literality. Some melodies and notes are already very emotional to begin with, let them do the work and tell a story too. It's this overemoting that turns the film into a parody.

And yet, he is making some of the same choices for Cats (Judi Dench).

The live-bleating isn't an option for this film, so at least this enhances the respect for the sung thoughts, which are per definition not literal. The studio recordings enhance the magic of taking the audience on a journey into the character's mind, which instantly feels bigger than realistic, literal life. This is more than someone humming to himself.

For Grizabella they hired someone whose sung notes can actually act. This results in acting through song instead of acting in spite of song. So her scenes might feel organic.

Other casting baffles me, Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy. His scene at the end (The addressing of cats) should be sung in a heroic and glorious way. Almost heavenly. How is Judi able to not make it the self-pitying, speak-bleating, retiring, subdued moaning, groaning she always does? She is not able to emote through song, but in spite of song. Don't ruin her scene by letting her attempt singing then, that hurts the acting. Use a voice over.

Other actors, such as Taylor Swift can't emote, neither through song or acting so she can just be pretty. I'm not sure which role she plays but not emoting is still better than the ridiculously tiresome overemoting I described before. But it's still very disrespectful casting.

Put in Rebel Wilson for the laughs and the movie is a little bit of everything. It's like he is running around frantically trying to please all audiences to put someone in that might interest every group out there. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a bit of nothing in the end.

This project needs someone who understands the artform on film. Now it's just Russian roulette.