Judi Dench Joins Cats Film Cast

Dame Judi Dench is expected to take on the role of Old Deuteronomy in the upcoming film adaptation of Cats, according to published reports.

Dench joins a cast that will include Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift, James Corden, Ian McKellen, and Laurie Davidson. Further information about the film has not been announced.

The film will be produced by Working Title. Tom Hooper, who directed the film version of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's Les Misérables, is slated to direct. Billy Elliot book writer and lyricist Lee Hall is penning the screenplay. As previously announced, the film will be released on Friday, December 20, 2019.

Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the original Broadway production of Cats opened in 1982 at the Winter Garden Theatre. The production ran for a record-breaking 18 years and 7,485 performances and earned six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score. The recent Broadway revival played at the Neil Simon Theatre from July 31, 2016, to December 30, 2017.