HOLLYWOOD - Other actors can go take a hike.
The Cat in the Hat will be played by Mike.
Yep, that's right. Austin Powers himself, Mike Myers, has signed on to play the elusive, yet wise, title character in a live-action version of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat for Universal-based Imagine Entertainment.
Myers' previous altercation with Imagine over the demise of the comedy Dieter, based on a character Myers created on Saturday Night Live, resulted in a lawsuit and settlement, and seems to have been smoothed over with the prospect of making a really great movie together.
Imagine's chairman Brian Grazer explained to Variety, "After we made How the Grinch Stole Christmas, we were contemplating Cat in the Hat at the time we were going through this whole Dieter mess, and I remember saying to one of his CAA agents that Mike would be really good as the cat."
Grazer went on, "They said, 'But you're in this thing with him,' and I said, 'Sure, but he'd still be great, the best creative choice.' Mike heard about that, and we started talking. I think both of us were flattered with the idea of putting art before all that other stuff. A creative bridge happened in an organic way."
The film will incorporate all the favorite characters from the original story, as well as add some new ones.
The Dr. Seuss picture book and cartoon story is about two kids who, while their mother is out, invite the wily Cat in the Hat into the house, even though their pet fish warns that their mother would not like that, not one tiny bit. Of course, the Cat manages to completely wreck the house.
Production designer Bo Welch, who was to make Dieter his directorial debut, will be handling the reins for Cat instead.