Mi, mi, mi, meow!
It's time for James Corden, Taylor Swift and Jennifer Hudson to get in touch with their feline side because they've been cast in an upcoming film adaptation of the classic Broadway musical, Cats, Variety has confirmed. The Late Late Show host's rep further confirmed to E! News that the star has been cast in the project while Hudson did the honors herself by tweeting a video of a cat. "Well, I guess the CATS out of the bag!" she punned online.
While Swift and Corden's roles are currently unclear, according to Variety, Hudson will take on the show's classic role of Grizabella, the character responsible for the iconic ballad, "Memory." The songstress certainly has the pipes—she famously won her first Oscar for her breakout performance in the 20006 movie musical, Dreamgirls. Corden also won a Tony Award in 2012 for "Best Actor in a Play" in One Man, Two Guvnors.
According to the report, Tony Award winner and Oscar nominee Sir Ian McKellen will also star in the film.
The King's Speech director Tom Hooper is slated to helm the project with shooting beginning this November in Britain; it's good timing for Swift as her Reputation tour is scheduled to wrap up with three shows at the start of the month and two at the end.
Per Variety, the screenplay was written by Lee Hall of Billy Elliot fame. Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the musical based off of T.S. Elliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The show premiered in 1981 and went on to win seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
It has since become the fourth-longest-running show in Broadway history.
While we wait for the Jellicle tribe to hit the big screen, there's always Corden's crosswalk rendition of the musical to tide us over until the anticipated 2019 premiere.