A purrfect storm over Cats as panned film is pulled for new version

MOVIE bosses have sent out a newly edited version of Cats to cinemas just a week after its release.

The highly unusual move follows a host of bad reviews from critics who have slammed the film, with one saying it was so dreadful their eyes were “burning”.

Director Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1981 musical opened last week to disappointing box office results.

Despite an all-star cast, including Dame Judi Dench and Taylor Swift, it pulled in just £2million in the US against Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’s £69million.

At the film’s New York premiere last week Hooper said that he had only finished the movie just hours before it was unveiled.

Hooper reportedly wanted further tweak the film’s CGI effects – the so-called digital fur technology that made the film’s first trailer so scary – and the director requested that Universal studios distribute a new version.

A note sent to cinemas promises that the new version comes with improved visual effects.

Last week the film was savaged by critics both in Britain and around the world with one critic saying that watching it was “an endurance test”.

Variety magazine in the US wrote: “Nine may not be enough lives for some of the stars to live down their involvement in this poorly conceived and executed adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical.”

The Boston Globe reviewer wrote: “My eyes are burning. Oh God. to

My eyes.” The LA Times added: “Cats is both a horror and an endurance test.”

Just 19 per cent of 180 reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes film website yesterday were positive. But Jason Derulo, who stars in the film, hit back at critics and said: “Reviews don’t matter. It’s an incredible, brave piece of art.

“When it [the musical] came out on Broadway, it was the same thing. People were like ‘What is this? This is something totally different’.

Any time that you defy what an art form is, any time you defy all rules there’s going to be some pushback obviously.

“I am just excited for the people to actually see it because reviewers, what the hell do they know? Have they made a film ever in their life?”

With a stellar cast including Dame Judi, singer Taylor Swift as Bombalurina, James Corden, Idris Elba, Sir Ian McKellen and Jennifer Hudson, the film tells the story of a tribe of cats named the Jellicles.