(From the Archive) Mamma Mia!

Before Barbenheimer, there was The Dark Mamma. Two polar opposite movies going head-to-head at the box office, and both ending up huge successes in very different ways.

The film adaptation of Mamma Mia! was never planned to be Universal's big summer 2008 hit, in fact it wasn't until test screenings that they realised what a gem they had on their hands.

Mamma Mia! would not beat The Dark Knight at the box office, but it would blaze its own trail, for a jukebox musical based on a running stage production, showing that stories by women, about women and for women could also do big business.

But first, they had to persuade the producers of the stage musical to sell the film rights, and that took two things - Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson and the musical Chicago...

And then... they got Meryl!

Episode originally published on: 2nd November 2023

Mentioned in this episode:

From the Archive

There's no new episode this week, so I thought you might be interested in revisiting this slightly older, but no less brilliant episode. Just bear in mind, this episode is several years old, it may not sound quite as polished as newer episodes, and new information may have come to light in recent years with regards to the making of this movie (please see above for the original date of release) Please enjoy this time capsule of an episode. Thanks for listening!

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