Production has finally begun on the long-awaited big screen adaptation of beloved Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Cats,” and star Taylor Swift is just as excited as the rest of the show’s fans.
In a new photo and series of videos shared from the film’s London set, Swift could barely contain her glee, dancing around in the snow. But it was the selfie taken in front of her trailer that finally offered audiences confirmation about the superstar singer’s role in the flick.
The image, which Swift captioned with a simple “Meow,” features a sign reading “Bombalurina” in the background. That confirms speculation about the part Swift will be playing in the all-star musical, after Webber told Vulture last year that the singer would be portraying “one or other of the ‘Macavity’ girls,” who sing “Macavity the Mystery Cat.”
The person playing the other “Macavity” cat, the skittish Demeter, has not yet been revealed. Bombalurina, a flirtatious red cat, is one of the main felines in the ensemble.
Swift is just one of many major stars in the “Cats” cast. The rest of the ridiculously famous group includes Jennifer Hudson (playing Grizabella, who sings the show’s most famous song, “Memory”), Judi Dench (playing a gender-swapped Deuteronomy), Idris Elba (playing Macavity), James Corden, Rebel Wilson (playing Jennyanydots), and Ian McKellen (playing Gus the Theatre Cat).
Oscar winner Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech,” “Les Miserables”) is directing. “Cats” is due to hit theaters on December 20.
Taylor Swift’s globe-trotting tour for her 2017 album “reputation” is coming to Netflix on New Year’s Eve.
The streaming service released a trailer for “Taylor Swift reputation Stadium Tour,” a concert documentary with footage from the highest selling U.S. tour of all time.
Swift, whose 29th birthday is today, marked the occasion by tweeting the trailer. “Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes! Today I finally get to show you something we’ve been working on for a while… the trailer for the Reputation Stadium Tour! The entire concert film will premiere on @Netflix at 12:01AM PT December 31.”
The film features the show’s pyrotechnics, fireworks, multiple stages, and a 63-foot fake cobra. Opening acts Charli XCX, and Camila Cabello make appearances, as do other celebrity guests.
Netflix is moving into the concern film space slowly. Two years ago, it released the well-regarded “Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids,” which was filmed by Oscar winner Jonathan Demme.
Chances are you know filmmaker Joseph Kahn even if you don’t know who he is.
He’s directed countless commercials and music videos (most recently for Taylor Swift, with whom he enjoys a fruitful creative partnership). Also, he occasionally directs really amazing feature films. His first film was 2004’s “Torque,” a movie that should have been a cheap, “Fast & the Furious” knockoff but, thanks to Kahn’s sense of humor and heightened visual sense, was turned into something much weirder and more lovable. His second feature was 2011’s “Detention,” a little-seen but truly incredible horror comedy. And now, finally, he’s back with his third film, “Bodied,” in theaters now.
“Bodied” is a raucous comedy that is also super insightful and perfect for today’s political climate. It follows a nerdy graduate student (Calum Worthy), who is writing his thesis on battle rap and soon gets sucked into that world. Sure, it’s offensive and occasionally callous, but it’s also beautifully directed and smartly written, the kind of thing that would be more shocking if it weren’t so authentically true. It’s one of this fall’s must-see movies and, really, you should see it.
We got to chat with Kahn about why he chose “Bodied” as his third feature, what he learned from his experience trying to get people to see “Detention,” and whether or not he’s interested in taking on another big budget studio movie.
Moviefone: You have a lot of other commitments, whether it’s commercials or music videos. What about “Bodied” made you stop and take the time to invest in a feature?
Kahn: I love making feature films, even though I only make one once a decade or something. And I only like making them when I think I have something to say. And the entire offense culture of being hyper-woke and politically correct versus, on the flipside, people being incredibly incorrect in battle rap, seemed like a good prism to discuss the world as it is today.
The film is based, in part, on a true story. Did you know the story beforehand?
Oh, yeah. I’ve been a big battle rap fan since the early ‘90s. It had a very different incarnation back then. It wasn’t spoken word or acapella per se, and I’ve been working with Eminem for many, many years. But it wasn’t until the last couple of years, when the culture had gotten to a crisis point of people failing to communicate with one another, that a venue where people stand in front of each other and say the meanest things possible, would be an interesting thing to put out in the political climate of today.
YouTube Premium/Neon
What was it like working with Eminem as a producer and someone who helped shepherd the project along?
Are you kidding me? The king of battle rap blessing us with his presence? I soaked up everything he said like a sponge. He had opinions on a lot of things. I think authenticity was a big thing for him and making sure there were no false beats. And the process of how people think of raps in the midst of battle was an interesting perspective. By the time we were done with it, I think Eminem actually thought that Calum could actually wrap, which I think is a huge compliment to us. The funny thing is that everything we did was pre-written, but by the time Eminem saw the finished film he asked, “Did Calum come up with a lot of that on the spot?” Because to Eminem, that’s what he would do. He would just come up with that on the spot. But no, they’re all pre-written.
The movie premiered in 2017 at Toronto but is just now coming out, through an interesting partnership between YouTube Premium and Neon. Can you talk about how you made that decision when it came to distribution?
For me, the agenda was to make sure I went with a distributor that would release it untouched, unedited. That’s the reason I made it independently, off the grid, with my own cash in the first place. I think going through the studio system, there’s just no way any corporate entity would let anyone watch two hours of racist, sexist jokes. No matter what the context is. So, it was difficult to even protect the movie itself, to make sure what came out was raw and unedited. And since it is an independent project, none of the mechanisms that you normally have with studio support were there, for instance the soundtrack. I had to go and get the rights to a lot of these songs and there are some big bangers in there. And finally, working out this unique situation. It’s YouTube’s first movie that’s theatrical, and signing up that distribution deal with Neon took a long time, just legally what the partnership would look like, how the responsibilities were set up, and we finally got it out there. And here we are!
Is there any part of you that wants to go back to making a big studio movie? Or are you still smarting from your experience on “Torque?”
No, I’ve learned a lot since “Torque.” “Torque” I shot 16 years ago. So that’s 16 years of experience. And I shoot mostly commercials now and that’s a whole different world than when I was doing “Torque,” when I was just a music video director. Now, I’m primarily a commercial director and I feel, quite frankly, that I’m weaponized for one of these studios if anybody would have me and it’s the right property. You know, obviously I know my style and I know my filmmaking and if anybody would unleash me on something … but it’d have to be the right project.
I wanted to talk about your last movie, “Detention,” because I love it.
Oh, that must mean you’re a genius. Because all geniuses love “Detention.”
That movie kind of got lost. How did that experience help you in terms of figuring out how to handle “Bodied?”
I didn’t really learn anything when it came to the distribution factor because, look … The lessons I learned from “Detention” were how to get distributed — get big stars in your movie, pick your genre, figure out the expectations, and just meet them. And what did I do with “Bodied?” I did none of those things. I didn’t learn a single thing. I didn’t use big stars. I picked a cross-genre movie that made it hard to figure out your expectations. And I flooded it with racist, sexist jokes that horrify people in a normal, polite society. How do you market this thing? Who is the audience? And why would they ever go into the theater to watch this? Those are all things that I did not answer when I made this movie. I just wanted to make a good movie. I am the world’s biggest filmmaking idiot.
“Bodied” is in select theaters now and will be on YouTube Premium on November 28.
Lady Gaga just reached a new milestone. She and Bradley Cooper co-star in the new film “A Star Is Born,” and they are also the lead artists on the smash hit soundtrack. That soundtrack dropped October 5 and debuted at No. 1, selling 231,000 units in the United States in its first week. According to Billboard, it was the biggest week for a soundtrack in more than three-and-a-half years.
The soundtrack marked Gaga’s fifth No. 1 album, and it’s also her fifth No. 1 album this decade. That marks a new record for women, surpassing her previous tie with Taylor Swift for four No. 1 albums in the ’10s.
Warner Bros.
Gaga previously had No. 1 albums with “Born This Way” (2011), “ARTPOP” (2013), “Cheek to Cheek” (2014), and “Joanne” (2016). Gaga is now tied with Kanye West, Future, and J. Cole with five No. 1 albums this decade. Justin Bieber has six No. 1 albums so far in the ’10s, and Drake is leading the pack with eight.
20th Century Fox
“A Star Is Born” is already the third best-selling soundtrack of the year after just one week. The 231,000 units sold included 162,000 pure album sales; that already puts it close behind “Black Panther: The Album” with 223,000 albums sold. Top of the list is still “The Greatest Showman” at this point, with a total of 1.26 million albums sold in 2018, and 1.35 million if you also include its numbers from 2017.
Universal has set the release date of December 20, 2019 for the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s award-winning musical. (Another Broadway musical, “Wicked,” was originally going to debut on December 20.)
“Dreamgirls” Oscar winner Hudson will play Grizabella and McKellen will reportedly play patriarch Old Deuteronomy.
Webber is reportedly writing a new song for the feature for Victoria, a perky white kitten. (Possibly played by Swift?)
Swift and Corden previously teamed up in a 2017 skit for “The Late Late Show” where he was one of her new backup dancers.
CBS
The Tony-winning musical is based on the poems of T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.”
It opened in 1981 in London and went on to won 7 Tonys. It ran for a legendary 18 years on Broadway.
Tom Hooper’s “Cats” movie — based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical — has landed a dream cast.
Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, and — oh, hi there Gandalf/Magneto — Sir Ian McKellen will star in the film. The Daily Mail first reported the castings.
According to Variety, “Dreamgirls” Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson will play Grizabella, who gets to sing the iconic “Cats” song “Memory.”
Paramount Pictures
You know who’s not on that list? Anne Hathaway. Rihanna isn’t there either. Last month’s scoop from THS said Hathaway was in talks, and the film was hoping to land RiRi. Now that’s just a “Memory.”
Not sure what happened there, but no complaints about who they landed. Plus, Deadline said “additional casting is under way,” so maybe they’ll add more big names — unless that’s just for smaller supporting roles.
Fans have been sharing their purrs and hisses on this casting, and the idea of a “Cats” musical adaptation in general:
Back in January, Andrew Lloyd Webber told The Daily Mail he composed a new song for the film, for the white kitten Victoria. The report had said he was considering writing more numbers.
Tom Hooper (“Les Misérables”) has been working on this movie since 2016. The film is said to start filming this fall in London.
We were all 2-years-old for a full year, but shame on us for never once getting a cameo on a pop song like over-achieving James Reynolds. The elder daughter of the Lively-Reynolds clan is credited on “Gorgeous,” the third single from Taylor Swift’s new “Reputation” album.
James’ coo of “Gorgeous” is heard at the opening of the song. Up till now, fans just speculated about the baby in question. But today it’s official:
James’ parents appear to be part of Taylor Swift’s squad — or at least Blake Lively is, and Ryan Reynolds is by proxy. The married couple celebrated the Fourth of July at Swift’s place last year, and Swift went as Reynolds’ Deadpool character last year for Halloween. Lively and Swift also shared some photos from a fun time in Australia.
This is apparently how James Reynolds got herself on the “Gorgeous” track:
Taylor was with Blake and Ryan at the beach and was playing gorgeous for them on her guitar, and then their daughter, James, kept saying “gorgeous” over and over
.. so Taylor was like, “could i use that?” and the intro was born
Well played, young lady. Of course, this puts a lot of pressure on her younger sister, 13-month-old Inez, to really drop the mic and put them all to shame. May we suggest a cameo in the final season of “Game of Thrones” … as the miracle baby of Jon and Dany?
Nina was recently on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and revealed that she and Ruby had a serious prank war on set, and one of those pranks involved “Taylor Swift” and left an innocent bystander bloody. It was the bystander’s own fault, though, for fangirling too hard over “The Vampire Diaries” star. (It happens.)
Here’s how Nina explained the prank-gone-wrong:
“We had many, many, many pranks. By the end of it we were terrified and we didn’t want to leave our trailers. We were quarantined in our trailers because we thought the other one was doing something and plotting against us, and we were absolutely right because we were. And one of the ones — Ruby is friends with Taylor [Swift], so she hired an impersonator to come to our set to sing for me and do this thing, bombard me in my trailer. What she didn’t know was the girl that was hired to do this was actually a huge fan. So she got really nervous and in the middle of it ended up hitting her head and started bleeding.”
Yikes. At that moment, Chris Hardwick, who was also on “The Late Late Show,” quipped that the impersonator was “Taylor Not-So-Swift.” Ba-dum-dum.
Watch Nina Dobrev tell the story, then see her and Chris Hardwick discuss dog vs. cat people, and also play a game of “Nuzzle Whaaa?”:
A photo posted by Robert Downey Jr. (@robertdowneyjr) on
Oh, RDJ, we knew you were trouble when you walked into the MCU. And we love it. Swoki can probably handle the joke, too, since they’ve been hit with much worse in the two months since their relationship went public.
As far as we know, RDJ won’t be in “Thor: Ragnarok,” his Iron Man/T.S. will next be seen in “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” which comes out July 7, 2017.
Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift are currently the hottest couple on the planet, but their PDA-filled photos and whirlwind trips around the world have given some pause about the authenticity of their relationship. Now, Hiddleston has confirmed the two are, in fact, the real deal.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in celebration of his first Emmy nomination, for AMC limited series “The Night Manager,” the actor was asked for a response to the theory that he and Swift were pulling off a publicity stunt. His answer? Absolutely not.
“The truth is that Taylor Swift and I are together, and we’re very happy,” Hiddleston told THR. “Thanks for asking.”
He added, “That’s the truth. It’s not a publicity stunt.”
As for whether or not Hiddleston will be taking Swift as his date to the Emmys ceremony, the actor declined to say, telling THR he didn’t have time to think about his plus-one yet. (He also claimed he didn’t know he could bring a date. Not sure we believe you on that one, Tom.) But he did say he was looking forward to seeing his fellow Brits — and fellow category nominees — Idris Elba and Benedict Cumberbatch on the red carpet.
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for those three — and Swift — at the Emmys in September.
Oh, RDJ, we knew you were trouble when you walked into the MCU. And we love it. Swoki can probably handle the joke, too, since they’ve been hit with much worse 
Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift are currently the hottest couple on the planet, but their PDA-filled photos and whirlwind trips around the world have given some pause about the authenticity of their relationship. Now, Hiddleston has confirmed the two are, in fact, the real deal.