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Taylor Swift to star in Cats movie musical with Jennifer Hudson

TAYLOR Swift will join Jennifer Hudson in a movie adaptation of the hit musical, Cats, to be helmed by the Oscar-winning director who brought Les Miserables to the big screen.

Taylor Swift to star in a movie adaptation of Cats. Picture: Instagram
Taylor Swift to star in a movie adaptation of Cats. Picture: Instagram

POPSTAR Taylor Swift is set to return to the big screen in a movie adaptation of Cats, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

Variety reports that the movie will be directed by Oscar-winner Tom Hooper, who brought Les Miserables to the big screen, as also star Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen and James Cordon.

Taylor Swift with one of her cats. Picture: Instagram
Taylor Swift with one of her cats. Picture: Instagram

Hudson, who won an Oscar in 2007 for her breakout role in Dreamgirls, will play Grizabella, so she will get to sing the showstopping tune Memory.

Cats was the longest-running show on Broadway until it was surpassed in 2006 by The Phantom of the Opera.

Tom Hooper with his Oscar for The King’s Speech.  Picture:  AP
Tom Hooper with his Oscar for The King’s Speech. Picture: AP
Jennifer Hudson will play Grizabella.  Picture:  AP
Jennifer Hudson will play Grizabella. Picture: AP

It is unclear yet what role Swift will play but Hooper, who won an Oscar for The King’s Speech, helped steer Anne Hathaway to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Les Miserables.

The musical was itself adapted from a 1939 book of children’s poems by T.S. Eliot called Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.

The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as “the Jellicle choice” and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.

British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was responsible for the musical Cats.  Picture:  AP
British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was responsible for the musical Cats. Picture: AP

Swift has starred in just a handful of movies, including Valentine’s Day, The Giver and as the voice of Audrey in The Lorax.

Swift is a well-known cat lover, regular posting pictures with her two cats Meredith, named after Ellen Pompeo’s character, Meredith Grey in Grey’s Anatomy, and Olivia, named after Mariska Hargitay’s character Olivia Benson from Law & Order: SVU.

Originally published as Taylor Swift to star in Cats movie musical with Jennifer Hudson

Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/movies/taylor-swift-to-star-in-cats-movie-musical-with-jennifer-hudson/news-story/c5a06ee0f2aef85d996c1892844b2cbf