SHORT TAKES : Spielberg, Webber to Team Up for Full-Length Animated ‘Cats’

Screen giant Steven Spielberg is teaming up with theater giant Andrew Lloyd Webber to make a full-length animated feature film based on the Lloyd Webber’s hit musical, “Cats.”

The agreement between Universal Pictures and Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Lloyd Webber and his The Really Useful Group was announced today by Tom Pollock, chairman of the MCA Motion Picture Group; Casey Silver, president of production for Universal Pictures; Spielberg, and Lloyd Webber.

The winner of seven Tony Awards, including best musical, “Cats” is based on T. S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” The original productions opened in London in 1981 and in New York in 1982. Both are still running after 3,000 performances. To date, “Cats” has played in 15 countries around the world including the Soviet Union.

“Cats” marks the third animated feature film collaboration between Amblin and Universal. The companies’ two previous efforts were “An American Tail” and “The Land Before Time.”