THE DANISH GIRL Helmer to Direct CATS

British filmmaker Tom Hooper (‘The Danish Girl,’ ‘The King’s Speech,’ ‘Les Miserables’) is reported to be taking the director’s chair for a film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical ‘Cats.’

Inspired by Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, the record-breaking musical is about a tribe of cats 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. The show was first performed in London in 1981 and ran on Broadway from 1987 to 2006.

The adaptation, still in the early stages of development, is set up over at Universal with Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Debra Hayward of Working Title Films producing.