Just when you thought that Hollywood had run out of musicals to adapt into movies, along comes word that Abba tuner Mamma Mia will be turned into a big-screen event. And the man we have to thank/blame (it depends on your feelings towards the show) is Tom Hanks.
His Playtone company has snagged the rights to the musical from Littlestar, the company run by Mamma Mia producer Judy Craymer, as well as former Abba members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. Currently Universal is the top contender to finance the film.
Catherine Johnson, who wrote the book for the show, will be in charge of penning the screenplay, with a late 2007 release pencilled in.
And if you’ve never set foot in the theatre to watch the show, here’s a primer: a bride-to-be who has never met her father goes on a search for the three most likely candidates and invites them all to her wedding. Along the way, she and her friends find excuses to belt out such Abba classics as ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘The Winner Takes It All’.
So why now? "The time felt right. The partnership with Tom helped everything to fall into place," Craymer told Variety . "We've never had stars in the show, the music has always been the star, but we are certainly thinking about names as we take this from the stage to the screen."
Now come on film people… Where’s the movie of Return To The Forbidden Planet? No? Just our LA Contributing Ed demanding that one, then?
Source: ( Variety )
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