Universal gave "Cats" the December 20, 2019 release date that originally belonged to the "Wicked" movie.

"Wicked" now goes back to waiting for a release date, which is familiar territory since it took 12 years for the Broadway smash hit to get that date in the first place.

"Wicked" stage musical lyricist-composer Stephen Schwartz told The Hollywood Reporter that December 2019 was "always a fake date" anyway, since "there wasn't a prayer in hell" they'd have a movie ready to go by then.

However, he said they are making good progress on the script, which has gone through a few drafts. Schwartz told THR he and writer Winnie Holzman were about to go back to work on the most recent draft.

"I will tell you 100 percent there will be a movie of 'Wicked' and it won't be that far away but it won't be next year because we're still writing. Pre-production hasn't even begun but that could start in the not-too-distant future."

Since they are still working on the script, it's too soon to know who might be cast in the main roles. But here's hoping we hear something about "Wicked" by 2020, otherwise it might just melt away.

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