'Cat' To Move From Broadway To Big Screen?

  According to recent reports from Variety, producer of the current Broadway production of 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof', Stephen Byrd, plans to move the production from Broadway to the big screen. The show has been an enormous success, recently recouping its 2.1 million dollar investment this week.

Variety states, "Byrd said he had secured the rights to a new film version of "Cat" from the estate of scribe Tennessee Williams and intends to begin lensing in 2009, subject to the availability of thesps Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad.He added that he also has the rights to Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire" for a potential multiracial pic adaptation."

Since its first preview, CAT has been amongst the most successful straight play on Broadway and is up there each week along with the top grossing musicals.

CAT began its journey at the Broadhurst Theatre on February 12, 2008 and opened the following month on March 8 ending its run on June 22.  It is directed by Debbie Allen.

The stellar cast includes: Terrence Howard,  Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose And James Earl Jones, along with Lisa Arrindell Anderson, Lou Myers, Count Stovall And Giancarlo Esposito.

Hypocrisy, greed and secret passions threaten to tear apart a wealthy but dysfunctional Mississippi family in Tennessee Williams' stunning American masterpiece. CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF searingly portrays the larger-than-life characters of Maggie "the Cat," her alcoholic husband, Brick, and the domineering family patriarch, Big Daddy.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna