Film adaptation of Webber's musical "Cats" will have face off with "Star Wars"

The new film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's beloved musical "Cats" will have a face-off with "Star Wars: Episode IX" on December 20.

Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper will helm the project from Lee Hall's take on the musical, based on TS Eliot's children's poems.

The film will follow the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as "the Jellicle choice" and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.

According to Variety, Universal Pictures was originally going to release another musical hit, "Wicked" in the slot, which is currently delayed and re-dated.

Besides "Episode IX", "Cats" also faces stiff competition from Fox's Hercule Poirot mystery "Death on the Nile".

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