Cats Movie Has Been Changed After Release With Better CGI

Universal has notified thousands of theaters that they will be receiving an updated version of Tom Hooper’s musical Cats with some improved CGI effects. Originally a popular Broadway musical composed by the award-winning Andrew Lloyd Webber, the new film seems to be on a lot of people’s radar right now and not for all the good reasons a studio might hope for. With many critiques about how some of the actors looked due to the CGI in Cats after the movie’s trailer released earlier this year, the controversy has, at the very least, certainly helped to create an interesting life for this film.

According to the production team, there was actually much discussion beforehand trying to figure out the best method to turn the actors into cats for the film. They originally threw around the idea of putting prosthetics on the actors, but soon discovered technical problems with keeping the fur on and production wasn’t happy with the way it looked. In the end, they decided to do CGI cats instead of practical costumes because they believed the costuming, combined with the possibility of the actors overheating in the fur, could have been a real issue, and CGI would just look better.

Now, thanks to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, who received a copy of the memo on the movie’s opening day, viewers now know Universal notified thousands of theaters that they will be receiving an updated version of the Cats movie with “some improved visual effects“. THR reports a move like this is virtually unheard of for a “finished title in release,” according to cinema operators and Hollywood studio executives, but with critics and movie goers giving Cats such bad reviews and the film having a very soft opening of $2.6 million on Friday, perhaps director Tom Hooper felt this could only help things.

It’s also been discussed that director Tom Hooper (Les Misérables) has been working on the CGI effects for Cats almost right up to its December 16th world premiere in New York City. Sources report he was hoping to make “more tweaks to certain effects,” but he simply ran out of time. The updated version will be available for theaters to download Sunday through a satellite server, and exhibitors without access will receive a hard drive. The studio is asking theaters who receive this version to update it immediately, per Universal’s note.

Most likely due to all of the CGI effects, Cats cost roughly $100 million to make, so it’s really a shame it’s receiving such harsh criticisms from audiences. Sometimes even the best directors have a misfire in their careers, and looking at the source material for this film, as many who have seen the original Broadway play are fully aware, it’s kind of a unique tale that doesn’t resonate with everyone, and combined with the many viewers who are finding the CGI effects in Cats to be just plain bad, this could potentially be a huge loss for Universal. It will be interesting to see if this improved version of Cats acts any sort of band aid to the film’s issues.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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