WILL: CAT'S MEOW

Tuesday March 30, 1999 12:00 AM EST

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Will Smith's production company is teaming with Universal Pictures to develop another remake of Jacques Tourneur's 1942 horror-thriller "Cat People." Variety reports that the new film will be updated to the '90s and set in New York. The "Cat People" story is based on a Serbian legend about a breed of people descended from ancient couplings of women with big felines. When one of their number enters into a jealous rage (or engages in sex, as was the case in Paul Schrader's 1982 version with Nastassia Kinski and Malcolm McDowell), she reverts to her animalistic roots, changing into a panther or other member of the cat family, and must kill before becoming human again. The 1942 original starred Simone Simon and Kent Smith -- and was really scary.