Mamma Mia heading the big screen

[Guest Emperor]

I am a fan of musicals and theatre but I am not sure about bringing this one to the big screen. I think they are trying to force a great musical onto the big screen which rarely works. Look at The Producers, great musical, bad on the big screen. Anyway here is the news:

 

Theater director Phyllida Lloyd is in negotiations to make her feature directorial debut on Mamma Mia!, an adaptation of the popular ABBA musical, created by Judy Craymer and Catherine Johnson, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The musical adaptation will be produced by Universal Pictures and Tom Hanks' production company Playtone. Lloyd directed the stage version of the musical in London and New York, and she's well known in theater and opera circles for helming productions in London, Paris and Toronto of shows like "Six Degrees of Separation," "The Taming of the Shrew," "La Boheme," "Carmen" and "Ring Cycle."

 

The musical, which features 22 songs by ABBA, follows a bride-to-be -- raised on a Greek island by a formerly rebellious mom who never disclosed the identity of her father -- who locates three men who might be her father and invites them to her wedding. Since opening in London in 1999, the show has grossed more than $1 billion with productions running around the globe.

 

The movie's screenplay was written by Johnson, who wrote the show's book, and it will be produced by Playtone's Gary Goetzman and Craymer, who produced the show via her Littlestar banner. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are executive producing along with ABBA members and songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.

[Talya]

This is one show I would love to see. Maybe I'll get the chance in the summer.

 

However I agree about making it into a film I don't know whether it would work or not. But then look at Grease became one of the biggest musicals around (loved by Tinks...whose 6). I couldn't see people getting up in the aisles at the flicks and dancing like they do at the show...

[Guest Emperor]

I didnt think Chicago would be good either and I thought it might be better in the theatres than the musical. However, Mamma Mia works well live and with an audience. I have seen it twice (I am straight I swear) and just can not imagine how it can become a movie.

[Guest Yveva]

gotta say Emp, I am beginning to wonder about all that straightness you claim to have, between musicals, Grey's and the pink shoe on your signature... well...

[Guest Emperor]

I am just glad you haven't found my playgirl mags yet... wait...

 

I watch Grey's so I can talk to all the women about it. Yeah that's it.

[Guest Emperor]

This whole movies is hazy to me, but with the star power of Streep it could turn into something. Here is the news story...

 

Less than 24 hours after Variety announced that theatre director Phyllida Lloyd would be directing a movie based on the hit Broadway musical Mamma Mia!, they have broken the story that Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep is set to star in it. Lloyd, who directed the original "Mamma" in London as well as its Broadway incarnation, will make her feature directing debut on the pic, which will be shot in London and Greece.

 

Streep will play the rebellious single mother of a bride-to-be who never met her father. The daughter invites three likely paternal candidates to her wedding, and the ensuing conflict triggers the performance of 22 Abba hits including "Dancing Queen," "Take a Chance on Me" and "The Winner Takes It All."