Andrew Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift Preview the New Song They Wrote for the Cats Movie | Playbill

Film & TV News Andrew Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift Preview the New Song They Wrote for the Cats Movie “If you can’t get T.S. Eliot, get T. S.”

Andrew Lloyd Webber won his first Oscar with a song sung by Madonna. Could his second come with the help of Taylor Swfit?

The musical theatre composer and the pop star collaborated on “Beautiful Ghosts,” a song written specifically for the upcoming film adaptation of Cats. In the movie, the haunting melody is sung by Victoria the White Cat (played by Francesca Hayward), whose journey introduces audiences into the Jellicle cats' Jellicle world. Swift, who plays Bombalurina, provided her own rendition for a studio recording.

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Taylor Swift Universal Pictures

Check out the featurette above as the two music bigwigs discuss and preview the song.

WATCH: The First Trailer for the Cats Movie

“What I couldn’t believe was the extraordinary beauty of these lyrics that Taylor had written,” says director Tom Hooper. “It was as if someone had come into the film I was in the middle of making and read the script, met the actors, and seen the world, and reflected back to me a profound understanding of what we’re trying to do with the movie.”

Swift became a scholar of T. S. Eliot, whose poetry serves as the backbone of the libretto. She calls him “such a specific type of writer [who] uses such specific language and imagery.” She adds, “I really waned to reflect that. You can’t write a modern lyric for Cats.

“So if you can’t get T. S. Eliot, get T.S.”

Cats, also starring Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo, Judi Dench, James Corden, and Ian McKellen, arrives in movie theatre December 20.

WATCH: Get a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Cats Movie

Check Out the Cast of the Cats Movie

 
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