Cats Production Was Almost Slavery For VFX Artists | Screen Rant
A VFX source from 2019's Cats described work on the production as almost slavery, criticizing the director for having no knowledge of CGI.
Working on the crew for Cats was almost like slavery, according to a member of the VFX team. Cats, a film adaptation of the beloved musical, was released in theaters this past December, opening to less than favorable reviews. The trailers and marketing leading up to its debut left many questioning what the final product would look like. The odd appearance of the actors as CGI cats seemed to be the first source of worry for many. Upon release, the movie was immediately ridiculed as a train wreck that ended up losing Universal at least $100 million.
The Cats saga continued to garner attention from fans long after its release. Rumors surfaced that director, Tom Hooper, and his team were diligently working on the visuals of the film right up to its premiere. Shortly after this, came news of a re-release of Cats with improved VFX. All that extra work seemed futile, however, as the movie still got panned, even offending some audiences more than it had before. The hate for Cats solidified after it gathered up the most Razzie nominations out of any movie from 2019. Cats’ horrible luck continued to spiral out of control, and there was no room to save it after stars James Corden and Rebel Wilson blamed the catastrophe on poor CGI when they presented at the 2020 Oscars. Then, when all seemed forgotten and Cats was long out of theaters, news came that a butthole cut existed which showed the articulated anuses of the dancing cats.
Following all this commotion, The Daily Beast is now reporting that the VFX team behind the disaster likens their experience as something similar to slavery. The source from the Visual Effects department described the shock of the Cats team when they noticed the buttholes, going on to call their work on the film “almost slavery.” It took them six months just to put together a trailer and an additional four to complete the entire production.
The source didn’t have many kind words to say about Cats director Tom Hooper when describing their time on the project. He, apparently, had no knowledge of how animation works and still felt the need to send individual emails which criticized the VFX team’s work. Words like horrible, disrespectful, demeaning, and condescending were all used to describe the director’s actions.
Cats seems to be the most doomed project in Hollywood. Not only was it a major financial loss for Universal, but it also seems to never be able to escape being mocked. The film was released four months ago, and people still can’t stop talking about its failures. Demands for the butthole cut have gotten many people talking about it again. This in-depth description of the VFX teams experiences is just another knock against one of the most disastrous projects in recent years.
Source: The Daily Beast