SUPERSTAR WARS!
As blockbuster battle begins, screen rivals go head-to-head in red
WRAPPED up all in scarlet, the leading ladies of the Christmas box office looked merry and bright in a red carpet showdown.
Taylor Swift and Daisy Ridley, both in billowing Oscar de la Renta gowns, brought festive glamour to the US premieres of their highly anticipated blockbuster films on Monday night.
Pop star Miss Swift, 30, wearing a £1,300 floral dress, joined musical theatre supremo Andrew Lloyd Webber at the screening of Cats in New York.
Meanwhile over on the west coast, British actress Miss Ridley, 27, dazzled in a red satin off-the-shoulder number at the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The latest film in the sci-fi franchise cost around £1 0million to make – which it’s set to make back in first weekend ticket sales in the US alone – while the budget for the live-action musical Cats was estimated at £7 million.
Official reviews of both films are banned until tonight – but premiere guests hinted at what’s in store. Plaudits for Star Wars ranged from ‘epic’ to ‘blown away’, while Broadway writer Alan Henry described Cats as the ‘strangest, most bewildering, queerest, magical, and spectacular cinematic experience’.
After a somewhat mixed response to the Cats trailer, writer and producer Ben Mekler said: ‘Cats is kinda great? Everything that seemed weird in the trailers just melts away.’ And Rebecca Rubin, of Variety magazine, called the film ‘120 minutes of pure and utter insanity’.
‘120 minutes of pure insanity’