Nico and Schnitzel together play Frodo, a strong, brooding service animal.

Frodo is alert to danger and often helps his human, the ailing Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), as they make their way through a dystopian New York full of noise-activated monsters. When separated from Sam, he attaches himself to another capable person, Eric (Joseph Quinn), and then unites Eric and Sam to give them all a better chance at survival.

These fine feline actors did such a good job, there is now talk of a Frodo spinoff. What’s more, director Michael Sarnoski says he used no CGI at all, in the cat scenes. Nico and Schnitzel were just two professionals, starring alongside the Oscar-winning Nyong’o and Quinn.

To be able to feature the cat character so prominently in the film “was a big victory for us,” Sarnoski told Variety.

British filmmaker Matthew Vaughn is likely yowling in despair.

For his secret-agent action-comedy Argylle (released in February and now streaming on Apple TV+), he held auditions and picked carefully. He fixed on a professional feline actor to play Alfie, the beloved pet of the lead character, who is a spy novelist on the run from the bad guys in her books.

The feline simply would not cooperate and had to be fired on day one of shooting. Vaughn, a confessed dog person, replaced it with his daughter’s pet cat, Chip, who was somewhat easier to work with but still had to have his performance enhanced by CGI.

That’s how it usually goes with felines. Why then do filmmakers write cats into their capers? Well, in cinema, cats can add to a scene what a dog simply cannot: an element of intrigue or even menace; a sense of being watched, and likely judged.

And, when one does get the shot, it can be legendary.

Think of the cat in Marlon Brando’s lap in The Godfather (1972). “You come into my house… on the day my daughter is to be married… and you ask me to do murder… for money” (stroke, stroke, stroke). The air of menace is magnified, with those two pairs of eyes looking out, rather than one.

Here are a few more-recent tales that felines enriched.

Ripley (2024)

This year’s black-and-white Netflix retelling of Patricia Highsmith’s classic novel, The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), features a Maine Coon called Lucio as the sole witness to the protagonist’s bumbling, rage-fuelled series of crimes.

Lucio was written into the script by director Steven Zaillian. He doesn’t do much. He’s quiet. He lurks and observes.

The role was recast twice before Zaillian landed on King. “Owners would bring cats into the office and think you would want them to do tricks,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “But what we wanted was a cat that could just be really chill, and comfortable with people and cameras.”

Through the film, Lucio gathers evidence, distributes it for better visibility, waits all night, as if on stakeout, by the vintage wrought-iron lift doors. But, wouldn’t you know it, the humans are too dense to catch on… until it’s too late.

The Marvels (2023)

Six cats have so far been employed to play Goose, the cat-shaped alien in the Marvel Studios films Captain Marvel (2019) and its sequel The Marvels (2023).

One of these, Reggie, is a Hollywood veteran who also featured in the 2016 Quentin Tarantino film The Hateful Eight. He does the heavy lifting in Captain Marvel, providing the effective close-ups and reaction shots. He also provides the form on which most of the special effects are based.

Goose and its fellow Flerkens are whip-smart, have oral tentacles and can eat things 10 times their size… so only a bit more intimidating than our own felines.

Asked how shooting went, trainer Jo Vaughan told Entertainment Weekly: “Cats are cats… That’s why you have two… So if one goes, ‘Do you know what? I’m not really feeling it today,’ then you can switch to the other one.”

Keanu (2016)

The kidnapped kitten in this action-comedy was played by seven kitties.

Veteran Hollywood animal trainers Larry Payne and April Macklin were roped in to get them screen-ready. Over a month, they were trained to stay calm around loud noises and commotion, run for cover on command, and endure wardrobe changes (because the gangsters who kidnap Keanu put him in gold chains, a tiny do-rag, a fedora, a leather jacket and other unimaginable things).

By the age of eight weeks, each kitten had its specialty: one could meow on cue, another could sit when asked nicely, a third could run; one turned out to mainly be good for cuddling. “It was like assembling a team of bank robbers,” director Peter Atencio has said.

“It’s a little bit easier with the kittens, believe it or not, than with adult cats,” Payne told Associated Press. “Because I don’t think they know any better.”

Well, that’s the most one can hope for, from these four-legged associates. Even in the best-case scenario, there will be no friendly publicity tour after the movie is done. Certainly none of the posing on the red carpet that Messi (from Anatomy of a Fall) has so sportingly done, paws raised in aww-inducing cuteness and gentle trot seemingly designed for the cameras.

Messi clearly wants his audience’s love and approval. Have you met a cat who cared about your opinion?