WORKING TITLE AND UNIVERSAL PICTURES BEGIN PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY ON "CATS" FROM OSCAR-WINNING FILMMAKER TOM HOOPER

Starring James Corden (Bustopher Jones), Dame Judi Dench (Old Deuteronomy), Jason Derulo (Rum Tum Tugger), Idris Elba (Macavity), Jennifer Hudson (Grizabella), Sir Ian McKellen (Gus), Taylor Swift (Bombalurina), Rebel Wilson (Jennyanydots) and Introducing Francesca Hayward (Victoria)

Cats Arrives in Theaters December 20, 2019

LONDON, Dec. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Working Title and Universal Pictures announced today that principal photography has begun on Cats, the groundbreaking new musical film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's global stage-musical sensation and the poems from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot.

The film stars Tony- and Emmy-winning actor and host James Corden (One Man, Two Guvnors, The Late Late Show with James Corden), Academy Award-winning actress Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love), multi-platinum-selling singer-songwriter Jason Derulo, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor Idris Elba (HBO's The Wire, BBC One's Luther), Academy Award, Golden Globe and Grammy Award-winning artist Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Academy Award-nominated actor Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters), Emmy and ten-time Grammy-winning global music icon Taylor Swift, whose Reputation Stadium Tour is the highest grossing U.S. tour in history, comedy superstar Rebel Wilson (the Pitch Perfect franchise) and introduces Francesca Hayward, principal dancer with The Royal Ballet.

Academy Award-winning director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl) brings astonishing new technology to transform his cast members in a breathtaking, vivid new vision of one of the most beloved musicals of all time.  

Adapted for the screen by Hooper and Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), Cats is produced by Hooper and Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, as well as Debra Hayward (Les Misérables), who brought the idea to Working Title.  The film 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, musical theater legend Lloyd Webber, Angela Morrison (Les Misérables) and Jo Burn (Annihilation).

One of the longest-running shows in West End and Broadway history, the London stage production of 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.  Based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the show won 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.