Universal did the world a great service by releasing “Cats” early on VOD. Our social-distancing hearts can all now sit back, relax and marvel at the kitschy atrocity that is Tom Hooper’s razzie-winning movie. This even prompted Seth Rogen to catch up with the film and live-tweeting his thoughts, as he was watching it, totally stoned out of his mind.
During the week we were greeted with the fantastic news that an unreleased version of “Cats” could exist, this one featuring actual CGI cat buttholes. Glorious. Writer Ben Mekler tweeted about desperately wanting a tell-all book about the making of the movie, which prompted writer Jack Waz to reply with the insinuation that a version of “Cats,” genitalia included, did exist:
He tweeted, “A VFX producer friend of a friend was hired in November to finish some of the 400 effects shots in @catsmovie. His entire job was to remove CGI buttholes that had been inserted a few months before. Which means that, somewhere out there, there exists a butthole cut of Cats”
#ReleaseTheButtholeCut started trending on Twitter, with even director Rian Johnson chiming in with his support for the release. Suffice to say, we’re in the middle of a pandemic here and people desperately want to have this cut available for their home viewing pleasures. Will Universal budge?
EDITED: A Universal spokesperson has now commented on the situation. They said that they cannot comment at this present time, but did leave us with a sneaky statement:
“Hopefully that will add to the magic and mythical nature of the cinematic treasure.”
I wrote on 01.10.20:
“Many years from now, Tom Hooper’s “Cats” will be remembered as a movie so bad in execution that it became the stuff of meme legend. Yes, with a tepid 20% score on Rotten Tomatoes and, when all is said and done, expected losses to be near the $100 million mark, the Broadway musical adaptation appears destined for all-time stinker-dom.”
The man doesn't stop. James Gunn has confirmed he's already hard at work writing his next film, even as ‘Man of Tomorrow’ makes its way toward theaters next summer.