The upcoming big screen adaptation of Cats has received a perfectly terrifying upgrade courtesy of the trailer music from Jordan Peele’s Us. Released in March, Us served as Jordan Peele’s second directorial effort following his smash hit and Oscar-recognized debut, Get Out. Though the film didn’t quite have the cultural resonance, Us was still a critical and commercial success in its own right, landing a record-breaking opening at the box office and becoming one of the best horror films of 2019.
Cats, meanwhile, is adapted from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s extremely popular Broadway musical - which itself was inspired by T.S. Eliot’s 1939 poetry collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Helmed by Tom Hooper (Les Misérables) from a script that he wrote with Lee Hall (Rocketman), the film features a star-studded cast including Taylor Swift, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Hudson, and Judi Dench. Idris Elba will also star, serving as the film’s main villain: Macavity. After the film’s first trailer was released, it immediately caught widespread attention on social media.
It didn’t take long for the parodies and mash-ups to start flooding the internet. The most prominent of which came from comedian Ian Abramson. After viewing the trailer, he took to Twitter to give it a creepy upgrade. Though he changed nothing about the footage itself, Abramson switched out the film’s Broadway score with the remix of “I Got 5 On It” by Luniz that was used in the first trailer for Us. The result is as perfect as it is terrifying. Check out the full mash-up below:
Though fans continue to long for what horrors the former sketch comedian will bring to the big screen next, Peele has since turned his focus back to writing and on-screen roles. As well as helping to revive The Twilight Zone and voicing a character in Toy Story 4, he has also penned a Candyman remake which is set to go into production very soon.
The reaction to the Cats trailer has been mixed thus far. While some fans consider it a sumptuous, beautifully bizarre adaptation of the beloved musical, there are others who found the blend of human faces on CGI cat bodies to be pure nightmare fuel. The new version of the trailer is sure to switch a few from the first camp into the second, with the song somehow fitting perfectly with the footage and increasing the already fairy tale quality the original version of the trailer already had going for it. It’ll do little to hurt anticipation for the film, though, merely serving as a fun little twist on the tale. In fact, with nearly thirty thousand likes, the remixed version of the trailer is helping to bring Cats even more prominently to people’s attention.
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Source: Ian Abramson
- Cats Release Date: 2019-12-20
