Desperate film bosses have sent out a new version of Cats, hoping they have ironed out all the im-purr-fections.
After the film opened on Friday to dire reviews, the re-edit was sent to cinemas, promising “improved visual effects”.
Director Tom Hooper reportedly wanted to tweak the CGI “digital fur technology” responsible for the weird cat people.
At the film’s New York premiere, Hooper told Variety he had only finished the movie last Sunday morning, after a 36-hour sprint.
In a highly unusual move, he has asked Universal to distribute an updated version.
A note sent to some cinemas playing the film adaptation of the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical stated: “DCDC and Deluxe-Technicolor will be sending updated FTR-20 SMPTE DCPs of Cats which will include some improved visual effects. The runtime is unchanged.”
The film has lost out at the box office in the US to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which pulled in £70million on Friday, compared to just £2million for Cats.
Cats, which features Taylor Swift, Judi Dench and Idris Elba, has been savaged by critics. The Boston Globe reviewer wrote: “My eyes are burning. Oh God. My eyes.”
Variety magazine said: “Nine may not be enough lives for some of the stars to live down their involvement.”
Jason Derulo, 30, who plays Rum Tum Tugger, hit back at critics, saying: “Reviews don’t matter ... It’s an incredible, brave piece of art.”
