'Cats' Movie: First Look at Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson and More Stars in Rehearsal
The Cats movie is coming along purrr-fectly!
In anticipation of an all-new trailer dropping this Friday, Universal Pictures is holding fans over with a sneak peek video featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the Tom Hooper-directed film. And if that's not exciting enough, it's also the first official look at Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Rebel Wilson, James Corden, Dame Judi Dench and more stars in action.
Swift first appears at the 0:09 mark, wearing a black turtleneck sweater and high-waisted leather shorts as she rehearses a set of choreography with a group of dancers. "My first memories of performance go back to when I was in Pennsylvania growing up," explains Swift, who portrays Bombalurina. "My favorite thing was getting to be theatrical, to tell a story and I've always brought that sort of narrative element to my live shows."
"I came right off of a stadium tour and went right into rehearsals," she continues. "[We] have people coming together from all different corners of entertainment. Everybody's working really long hours, rehearsing every day and it's fun."
Jason Derulo, who plays Rum Tum Tugger, then shares a similar story about developing a passion for performing at a young age. "I was just obsessed with singing, I was obsessed with dancing, but it started off with me in the kitchen with my socks on, trying to do the moonwalk," he recalls. "I think that you need to choose something that you're so obsessed with that you want to do it all the time."
The video also reveals that Cats will include professional dancing from Les Twins (Beyonce's featured hip-hop dancers and World of Dance season one champs) and Francesca Hayward (a principal dancer in the Royal Ballet), with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, who has worked on Broadway shows like Hamilton, In the Heights and Bandstand.
Oh, and if you're wondering what exactly "digital fur technology is," Corden attempts to explain it all at the 2:53 mark. "Tom's pairing them with a kind of level of technology which I don't think has ever been used before," he says. "These are people, but they're cats and this is kind of blowing my mind. There is nothing else like it."
Watch below:
ET caught up with Wilson back in February, where she teased what fans can expect from the movie, which hits theaters Dec. 20, 2019. Raving over co-star Swift, Wilson, who plays Jennyanydots, promised that the pop star's portrayal of Bombalurina will be the "sexiest."
"She's incredible," Wilson said. "She's such a lovely girl and I personally think her cat is the sexiest out of all the cats."
Hear more in the video below.
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