Many people have seen the eerie trailer for the new movie rendition of the musical Cats and almost everyone who saw it was horrified by it. Back when the trailer was released in July, it immediately gained the attention of viewers everywhere for the odd and terrifying special effects used to morph the faces of the cast into furry, not-so-adorable cats. Instantly, the trailer became a meme and circulated social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where people were quick to bash the movie or make the interesting special effects the butt of a joke. While some may think that the backlash was warranted, it wasn’t expected for the trailer to receive such negative reactions on the part of the viewers.
Director of the Cats movie, Tom Hooper, remained silent about the feedback that the trailer received for months. However, in an exclusive interview with Empire, Hooper finally responded to the unpleasant comments that flooded the media after the trailer’s release. Admitting that he wasn’t expecting such a negative response, Hooper stated, “I was just so fascinated because I didn’t think [the trailer] was controversial at all.” Yet he did concede that the internet meltdown “was quite entertaining to watch.” Being the number-one trending topic around the world for a few hours, Hooper was able to watch comments flood in that gave both positive and negative criticism about the direction of the movie thus far.
Courtesy: Universal Pictures
At the time of the trailer release, Hooper confessed that the film was still working on the editing of visual effects. “We’d only just begun shooting in March, so all the visual effects [in the trailer] were at a quite early stage,” he stated. However, in the months since the trailer first came into the hands of audiences, the visual effects have been tweaked and changed significantly. Hooper hinted that “possibly, there were, in the extremity of the responses [to the trailer], some clues on how to keep evolving [the production].” He continued by explaining that in the final version of the film, the designs of the cats have been altered because of their improved understanding of how to use the visual and editing technologies that make the human-cat creatures possible.
There’s no doubt that Hooper is still hoping for his film rendition of Cats to be a success despite the major negative response the trailer reached. Only time will tell if the movie will be a hit or miss in the eyes of the audience. Set to release near the end of Dec. 2019, the film is sure to be a topic of conversation, but whether opinions will be good or bad is yet to be determined.
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