By Elisa Black-Taylor
Grumpy Cat has now been signed to star in her own movie. She is a household name around the world, with more than 930,000 likes on her Facebook page. She’s had television appearances on Today, Good Morning America, CBS Evening News and Anderson Cooper Live. Her next big deal may be the big screen.
The project is being created by New Line, with Mark Steilen doing the writing and Will Ferrell and Jack Black starring.
Broken Road’s Todd Garner and Sean Robins have teamed up with Grumpy Cat’s manager Ben Lashes and representative Al Hassas to make a Garfield type of movie staring the famous diva.
This is likely to be a good business decision, considering the awards Tardar Sauce (A.K.A. Grumpy Cat) picked up in 2012. MSNBC named her the most influential cat of 2012. Mashable awarded her a most important Meme in 2012. And lets not forget the 120,000 subscribers and over 20 million hits to YouTube.
Grumpy Cat also has a line of her own merchandise available at major retailers, including Wal Mart and has partnered with Friskies for even more publicity.
I wonder what kind of plot we’ll be seeing with Grumpy Cat. I can picture her in a movie similar to That Darn Cat, which was made when I was very young. Of course, movie makers need to remember a cat will not perform on command. A cat will do what a cat wants when the cat feels like doing it.
Would the readers here like to see a movie with Grumpy Cat as the star? Or do you think it’s exploitation?
Let’s just leave the sweet little critter alone and let her nap in peace…(Amanda Kooser at cnet)
I grew up in the days of Bengi and Lassie and Rin Tin Tin (oops, that last one REALLY gives away my age!). But those were dogs, who I believe are much more reliable when it comes to tricks for treats. I think it would depend on how the movie trailer looks as to whether I’d want to bother seeing the movie. I’m not a big fan of Will Ferrell anyway. I do enjoy Jack Black, but I’d be seeing the movie because I enjoy his work more than because a cat is starring.
The one question I ask myself anytime I see this poor cat is “will she ever have the chance to live a normal life?” My cats are in the spotlight, to an extent, but only to the point of my chasing them around with a camera. They never have to perform on command as making a full length movie would require. Also people are forgetting that she has a deformity and may be in discomfort.
I’m afraid Grumpy Cat will find the entire situation boring, or stressful. Either way, she’s likely to feel as grumpy as she looks by the time Hollywood finishes with this newest project and she already has a reason to feel grumpy. There is also a big question mark over whether such a film can be successful. Is this going too far, squeezing too much out of a vulnerable little cat?
This is the big difference and most people – the voyeur types – are laughing at Tardar. I can’t speak for other people but for me it is as clear as day that she is being exploited yet for many people they don’t see this. I find that odd. Perhaps they are in denial.
Marc you are so right, cats hate being laughed ‘at’ but love being laughed ‘with’
There is a HUGE difference! They are natural born comedians, I know ours sometimes do something funny then look at us as if to say ‘this will make you laugh’ Jozef lies on his side and rolls over and looks back over his shoulder to make sure we are watching lol Walter sits on the table at the top of the stairs and pops his head over the bannister shouting ‘look at meeee-ow’ lol
There are a lot of insensitive people, I’m fed up of pictures and captions of Tardar coming up from some of my facebook contacts, people I would have thought would never help the exploitation of a disabled cat.
Sorry but I think anyone paying to watch the film is helping along this exploitation!
Once in a neighbour’s house she had a Garfield film on TV and she was laughing at him trying to escape from a cat carrier, yes it was only a cartoon but to me anything showing a cat’s discomfort is not at all funny.
That’s great to hear. I worry about dog chase scenes that always seem to work their way into cat movies. I just hate to think of poor Grumpy traumatized by any of this. I read she only has once a week photo sessions. I hope she gets to enjoy being a cat and isn’t being unhappy with all of this.
Nice point. If the movie is all CGI then Tardar doesn’t have to do much except promote the film, which may be too much.
My problem is the whole circus. What is it about humans that we can become obsessed with a disabled, dwarf cat with a Snowshoe cat face that is distorted because of bone malformation?
Excellent comment. Completely right.
For me to. It explains why this is exploitation of a companion animal. Companion animals are not protected. They have lesser rights. Almost no rights. Therefore they are exploited.
Tardar Sauce lives here in Arizona and is frequently on our local news. They reported that she will most likely have nothing to do with the making of the movie it will be all CGI. I assume they will at least need to do a 360 degree image scan of her as the basis for animation. She will also have to make personal appearances in connection to the movie. This can be highly demanding on a human, let alone a little disabled kitty.
I love those old Disney cat movies like That Darn Cat!, The Amazing Journey and my favorite, The Cat from Outerspace. I also loved the cat Binx (voiced by NCIS’s Sean Murray)in Disney’s 1993 Hocus Pocus. All these cats were treat loving animals. Like Daisy the Curly Cat, they were eager to earn their treats. I think it is a fair exchange, because as Elisa said above, you cannot get a cat to do anything it doesn’t want to. I would rather see a live cat, I would. However, I certainly would rather have CGI vs. Tardar Sauce being forced to do something that is hard on her. So I will see it (I love Jack Black too) as long as she is not in it. (at least more than a few shots)