“Cats” may claw its way to the big screen thanks to Hollywood’s renewed appetite for movie musicals, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber told the Daily Mail.
He reports that Universal Pictures, which owns the film rights to the stage smash, “…has now got ‘Cats’ out of the drawer in which they locked it years ago when they bought the rights and suddenly they’re talking about a film.”
If the movie gets made it has “Les Miserables” to thank for it. The film adaptation of the hit musical grossed $441.8 million worldwide and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, it was also released by Universal.
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The studio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I haven’t seen the [Les Mis] film but it’s fantastic for musicals because everybody wants to make them again,” Lloyd Webber told the Mail.
Llyod Webber, who is currently readying a new musical about the John Profumo sex scandal that rocked England in the 1960s, has had a mixed track record when it comes to film versions of his work. The 1973 film version of “Jesus Christ Superstar” was a hit and the 1996 version of “Evita” earned a Golden Globe award for Madonna, but the 2004 film of “Phantom of the Opera” was a box office disappointment.