While it opened up at box offices on Friday, Universal's Cats adaptation will be issuing a visually improved version of the film for distribution across all theaters in response to critics and moviegoers less than stellar ratings of the film's visual effects, namely the CGI animation that transforms actors such as Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, and Taylor Swift into lifelike cats.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the move, never done for a film already in release, is being made at director Tom Hooper's request.
The film is an adaptation of the 1981 broadway musical and received backlash at an instant with the arrival of its trailer with viewers critiquing the effects that blend the actors' faces with feline features.
"What the trailer reminded me was my original intention, which was to preserve as much of the face as possible," Hooper recently told Business Insider. "I think, possibly, in some characters in the trailer the original face had gotten a little bit lost under the fur," he said. "So I think the biggest difference, which is subtle but it's important, was to pare it back and sculpt it more lovingly around the actor's actual face so I lost none of it."