Idris Elba Joins ‘Cats’ Musical Film Adaptation

Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden and Ian McKellen are also set to star in the adaptation of the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

Idris Elba is in final negotiations to join the movie adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats.

Elba will join Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden and Ian McKellen in the film to be directed by Tom Hooper.

Cats tells the story of a tribe of felines called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as “the Jellicle choice” and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Elba would play Macavity, a master criminal.

The musical — which is the fourth-longest-running show in Broadway history and was the longest-running Broadway show ever from 1997 until 2006 — features some of the best-known songs from the stage, including “Memory.”

Production on Cats is set to take place later this year in the U.K., with more of the cast to be announced. Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) has adapted Webber’s musical, which itself was based on the T.S. Eliot novel Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.

Universal and Working Title are behind the musical, which is dated for a Dec. 20, 2019, release.

Elba, who is repped by WME, The Artists Partnership and Ziffren Brittenham, is currently filming Universal’s Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw.

Article via HollywoodReporter