Where Fur Art Thou?

Steven Spielberg and Andrew Lloyd Webber may have plans to turn the musical “Cats” into an animated film, but two lesser-knowns already have a jump on those two entertainment fat cats. Not only a jump--they used real felines. For an all-cat version of “Romeo - Juliet”( no less.

Brussels-based P.H. Consulting and L.A.-based Moonseed Prods. produced the film, which premieres Thursday at the Venice Film Festival (no U.S. distributor yet). Loosely based on William Shakespeare’s drama, it’s played as a ballet, utilizing the music of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” ballet as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Andre Previn.

Actually, there is one human character amid the furry cast--actor John Hurt in drag as “La Dame aux Chats,” a Venetian bag lady. Moved by Romeo and Juliet’s plight, she transports them to the New World, where Romeo, a smoky, long-haired gray, and Juliet, a cloud-white Turkish Angora, are free to purr-sue their romance in peace.

Director Armando Acosta kept Shakespeare’s famous balcony scene in the script--sort of. Acosta shot it atop the Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island.

Still, there was one more detail that gave us pause: “The cats themselves do not speak,” said a press release. Were they expected to?

A spokeswoman explained that such stellar British actors as Maggie Smith, Ben Kingsley and Vanessa Redgrave convey the cats’ thoughts in voiceovers.