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FILM REVIEW: MAMMA MIA! THE MOVIE
By Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune Movie Critic
2 stars
It's funny what you buy completely onstage and resist completely, or nearly, on-screen. Case in point: "Mamma Mia!" -the ABBA-fueled stage phenomenon that has now become "Mamma Mia! The Movie."
Of course I never miss a Meryl Streep musical. On-screen she sang in "Silkwood," "Ironweed," "Postcards From the Edge" and plenty in "A Prairie Home Companion." Onstage Streep put her pipes to work on Brecht and Weill's "Happy End"; years ago I heard a bootleg '70s recording of "The 1940s Radio Hour," which showcased Streep and her fellow Yale Drama School classmates on a variety of big-band standards.
Given this resume, it's really no surprise the screen doyenne can handle the ABBA tunes with aplomb. It's disappointing, then, to see the film version of the stage hit turn out this way - not lousy, but pushy. I've happily seen the stage version three times, and the way director Phyllida Lloyd finessed the corny setups and refused to treat the product like a blockbuster, the results were very sweet and even moving.
However assured her theatrical talent, Lloyd hasn't yet determined what sort of film director she has in her. She goes at "Mamma Mia!" like a frisky, easily distracted puppy. Slow-mo leaps in the air; pop-eyed reaction shots: Everything's in twinkle overdrive. As with most stage-to-screen transfers, about a half-hour of material has been excised, and "Mamma Mia!" never had that much story to begin with. Free spirit Donna (Streep) lives with her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) on a Greek island, where her unbearably scenic taverna, legend has it, sits atop Aphrodite's fountain. Love is in the air and in the water.
Sophie's about to marry the unfortunately named Sky (Dominic Cooper). The bride-to-be learns her father, whom she never knew, is one of three possible candidates, all of whom Donna knew That Certain Summer 20-odd years ago. Sophie doesn't tell her mom they're coming to the wedding. The gents are played by Pierce Brosnan, who duets with Streep on "SOS," "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" and "When All Is Said and Done"; Colin Firth, who handles his more modest vocal requirements rather better; and Stellan Skarsgard. Donna's comrades and former bandmates are played by Julie Walters and Christine Baranski.
The performances are more competitive than collegial, at least among the women, and Streep - formidable as always - doesn't exactly ease into the material. It's more like a well-planned beach assault. She calms down fully at one point and one point only, during the mother/daughter wedding prep scene "Slipping Through My Fingers"; tellingly, the number's also the calmest and most purposeful in its directorial approach. The rest of the show is supposed to be frantic and manic in comparison. Yet what flowed easily and well onstage, thanks to "Dancing Queen" and various other irresistibly catchy ABBA tunes, lurches and pushes on-screen. Call it "My Big Comparatively Thin Greek Wedding," and let's hope the next Meryl Streep musical fares better, as does the next film by director Lloyd.
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some sex-related comments)
Running time: 1:48
Starring: Meryl Streep (Donna); Pierce Brosnan (Sam); Colin Firth (Harry); Stellan Skarsgard (Bill); Julie Walters (Rosie); Dominic Cooper (Sky); Amanda Seyfried (Sophie); Christine Baranski (Tanya)
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd; screenplay by Catherine Johnson, based on the stage musical by Johnson, conceived by Judy Craymer, based on the songs by ABBA; photographed by Haris Zambarloukos; edited by Lesley Walker; music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, additional material by Stig Anderson; produced by Craymer and Gary Goetzman. A Universal Pictures release.

- Notes provided by Universal Pictures. -

Production Information
It's the blockbuster stage musical seen by more than 30 million people in 170 cities and eight different languages.
About a bride, her mom and three possible dads.
Filled with songs by iconic supergroup ABBA that you know and love.
Now, summer 2008 is the season when it finally hits the big screen.
Mamma mia, here I go again. My, my, how can I resist you?
MERYL STREEP and PIERCE BROSNAN lead a spectacular all-star cast in Mamma Mia! The Movie, the musical celebration of mothers and daughters and fathers, true loves lost and new ones found, and the romantic possibilities of what can happen on one magical Greek island when love is in the air and music and dancing abound.
Joining Streep and Brosnan for the music, romance and comedy are COLIN FIRTH (Love Actually, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), STELLAN SKARSGÅRD (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Exorcist: The Beginning), JULIE WALTERS (Becoming Jane, Harry Potter series), DOMINIC COOPER (The History Boys, Starter for 10), AMANDA SEYFRIED (Mean Girls, television's Big Love) and CHRISTINE BARANSKI (Welcome to Mooseport, Chicago).
The three women who created the worldwide smash stage hit-global producer JUDY CRAYMER, screenwriter CATHERINE JOHNSON and director PHYLLIDA LLOYD-reprise their roles in bringing this joyful, musical story to the big screen.
Producer GARY GOETZMAN (Charlie Wilson's War, The Polar Express, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) joins them for the musical celebration.
Mamma Mia!'s accomplished behind-the-scenes team includes director of photography HARIS ZAMBARLOUKOS (Sleuth, Venus), production designer MARIA DJURKOVIC (The Hours, Billy Elliot), Oscar®-winning costume designer ANN ROTH (The Good Shepherd, The English Patient) and editor LESLEY WALKER (Emma, The Brothers Grimm).
The executive producers are BENNY ANDERSSON (composer), BJÖRN ULVAEUS (lyricist), RITA WILSON (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, upcoming My Life in Ruins), TOM HANKS (Charlie Wilson's War, Band of Brothers) and MARK HUFFAM (The Hours, Johnny English). Music and lyrics are by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.


FOREWORD BY JUDY CRAYMER
Let the Joy Wash Over You
"I was recently watching the wonderful Broadway company of Mamma Mia! once again bring a delirious audience to a standing ovation at the Winter Garden Theatre, and I recalled a comment in the New York Post review of the New York premiere in 2001 that everyone associated with Mamma Mia! has made into their comic mantra: 'Let the joy wash over you.'
Ten years ago, when I was scrambling with author Catherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd in the final stages of creating a new stage musical based on the songs of ABBA, it would never have occurred to me that Mamma Mia! would be a major worldwide summer movie release blessed with a cast led by Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. I now know what it feels like to go through the full joy rinse and dry cycle!
Much has been said and written about the worldwide success of Mamma Mia! (and not just by the show's publicists!) since the show opened almost a decade ago in London. The statistics that bring me a sense of unbridled pride and deep humility surround the notion that Mamma Mia! has become a large, extended family that numbers in the hundreds of thousands, soon to be millions.
In Mamma Mia!, Sophie wants to find her father on her wedding day. Sophie's life and family change in ways she could never have imagined in the 24 hours leading up to the ceremony. The Mamma Mia! journey is that of an extended family that keeps growing and growing in ways I could never have dreamed of.
It's often a cliché when we say something touches people's lives, but it is true of
Mamma Mia!
This movie is a celebration of everyone who has worked on Mamma Mia! for the past decade: from Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, who trusted me to make a stage musical and now a movie, to the creative team and the hundreds of actors who have appeared in the show around the world, along with everyone behind the scenes and the hundreds more who have brought Mamma Mia! to the big screen.
As you watch Mamma Mia! The Movie, you will become part of that family.
I hope you have the time of your life with this movie.
'Let the joy wash over you...'"


FILM SYNOPSIS AND MUSICAL NUMBERS
It is 1999 on the enchanting Greek island of Kalokairi. Our romantic adventure begins at the remote Mediterranean hotel Villa Donna, run by Donna (Meryl Streep), daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and Sophie's fiancé Sky (Dominic Cooper).
Just in time for her upcoming marriage, Sophie nervously posts three wedding invitations ("I Have a Dream") to three different men, any of whom she believes may be her father. From three cities across the globe, three men set off to return to the island- and the woman-that had enchanted each of them 20 years earlier.
Back on that island, Donna is rousing her staff for the frenetic day ahead as Sophie's bridesmaids arrive and she shares with her best mates a scandalous secret: Sophie has found her mother's diary and learned she has three possible dads- businessman Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan), adventurer Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgård) and banker Harry Bright (Colin Firth). Without telling her mom, she has invited all three to her wedding ("Honey, Honey"), believing that after she spends time with them, she will at last know who her real father is.
Meanwhile, back on the Greek mainland, Sam, Bill and Harry-strangers until today-have met at the harbor. Fortuitously, Sam and Harry have missed the ferry to Kalokairi, and Bill offers them a lift on his yacht to reconnect with the woman who broke all their hearts 20 years ago.
Back on Kalokairi, Donna is ecstatic to reunite with old friends and former "Donna and The Dynamos" bandmates, wisecracker Rosie (Julie Walters) and wealthy multiple divorcée Tanya (Christine Baranski), and reveals her mystification at her daughter's desire for a traditional wedding-or any wedding at all. At the Villa, Sophie introduces Tanya and Rosie to true love Sky, and tells them about their idea of designing a Web site to attract tourists to the island. Donna explains her precarious finances ("Money, Money, Money") to her girlfriends as she takes them on a tour of the Villa. Hounded by her creditors, Donna dreams of a "rich man's world," sunbathing on a yacht and being deliciously pampered. She is brought back to reality as an ominous crack appears in the courtyard.
The three men arrive, and Sophie smuggles them to their quarters and sheepishly explains that she, not her mother, sent the invitations. She begs the men to hide so Donna will have a fantastic surprise at the wedding: seeing the old friends of whom she "so often" favorably speaks. They overhear Donna working in the storeroom below- preparing to fix the crack-and the men swear to Sophie they will not reveal her secret. Sophie leaves by the window...just in the nick of time, as Donna peeps through the trapdoor.
She is dumbfounded to find herself face-to-face with the three former lovers she could never forget ("Mamma Mia"), while the men clumsily make up excuses for their presence. Donna is adamant; they simply cannot stay. Visibly shaken, she confides in Tanya and Rosie ("Chiquitita") a secret she has kept from everyone: she is uncertain which of the three men is actually Sophie's father. No matter, as Tanya and Rosie rally her spirits by getting Donna to join in-with the female staff and islanders accompanying-a musical number intended to make her forget her woes. Donna and The Dynamos reclaim their glory days and champion the women of the island in a call to liberation ("Dancing Queen").
Sophie finds the men aboard Bill's yacht, and they take a trip around the gorgeous island ("Our Last Summer") and tell her stories of Donna as a carefree girl. Upon their return, Sophie musters up the courage to speak with Sky about her ploy, but loses her nerve. Sky and Sophie sing passionately to each other ("Lay All Your Love on Me"), but are interrupted by the bachelor party that has descended upon Sky to kidnap him for his last night of freedom.
At Sophie's bachelorette party, Donna, Tanya and Rosie perform in a surprise one-night-only event as Donna and The Dynamos ("Super Trouper"). Sophie is delighted to see her mom rock out, but becomes nervous when the festivities are interrupted by the arrival of Sam, Bill and Harry. She decides to get each of her three prospective dads alone to talk.
The young bride uses the confusion of her amorous girlfriends' dancing with the men ("Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! [A Man After Midnight]") to speak with Sam about his love for Donna. Next, she's on to Harry about his desire, if any, for children. Finally, Bill reveals that the old woman who gave Donna the money to invest in her villa was his Great Aunt Sofia, and Sophie guesses she must be her namesake. That's it! Bill must be her father! Sophie asks him to give her away and to keep their secret from Donna until the wedding.
Over the moon, Sophie returns to the party. But her happiness is short-lived as Sam and Harry each tell her they must be her dad and will give her away ("Voulez-Vous"). A shocked Sophie can't tell them the truth and, overwhelmed by the consequences of her action, faints on the dance floor.
In the morning, Rosie and Tanya reassure a frantic Donna they will take care of the men. Donna confronts Sophie in the courtyard, mistakenly believing Sophie wants the wedding stopped. Sophie angrily says that all she wants is to avoid her mother's mistakes and storms off. An upset Donna is accosted by Sam, full of fatherly concern at Sophie getting married so young. Donna dresses him down, and both realize they still have feelings for each other ("SOS").
Meanwhile, on Bill's boat, Bill and Harry are about to confide in each other, but are interrupted by Rosie-who is startled to find Bill making breakfast in the buff! Similarly, pulses are racing down on the sandy beaches as Tanya and young Pepper continue their May-December flirtations from the previous night ("Does Your Mother Know").
With her plans falling apart and wedding in jeopardy, Sophie knows it is time to come clean to Sky and ask for his help. He reacts angrily to his fiancée's deception and Sophie must turn to her mother for support.
As Donna helps her daughter dress for their wedding, the rift is quickly healed and Donna reminisces about Sophie's childhood and how quickly she's grown ("Slipping Through My Fingers"). Then and there, Sophie decides the only parent she's ever known is the only one who should give her away. As the staff and bridesmaids accompany Donna and Sophie to the chapel, Sam lies in nervous wait. Donna waves the wedding party on, and he begs Donna to talk. She cuts him short, however, revealing the deep pain she felt over losing him ("The Winner Takes It All").
After the ceremony begins, Donna can hold her tongue no more. She confesses to Sophie that her father is present...but he could be Sam, Bill or Harry. Sophie, in a shocker of her own, admits she invited them. The three men concur that they would be quite happy to be one-third of a father for such a girl. The surprises keep coming when Sophie tells Sky they should postpone their wedding and travel the world, as they have always wanted. It appears that preparations have been in vain until Sam steps in with the final curveball: he proposes to Donna.
She accepts ("I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do")!
At the wedding reception, Sam sings a song to Donna, who he has loved for 21 years ("When All is Said and Done" [in the film only, not the musical]), which prompts Rosie to make a coy play for Bill ("Take a Chance on Me"). All the couples present proclaim their love and, magically, water from Aphrodite's fountain of love bursts through the crack in the courtyard at Villa Donna.
Our story concludes as Sophie and Sky bid farewell to the island and sail away to a new life together ("I Have a Dream"), one full of hope and promise.


BEFORE THE PRODUCTION
I Have a Dream:
Mamma Mia! Is Developed

The story of Mamma Mia! began in the '80s when producer Judy Craymer was working with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus as executive producer of their first post-ABBA project, Chess. She was immediately smitten with them. "After all, these were the men who had written 'Dancing Queen,' one of the greatest pop songs of all time," explains Craymer. Inspired by the theatricality of their songs, she was moved to create a musical that would use existing ABBA songs, but one set against an original and exciting new format.
One song in particular, "The Winner Takes It All," (sung in the movie by Meryl Streep) turned out to be the trigger. Originally titled "The Story of My Life," ABBA's greatest break-up song (also the band's last top-10 hit in the United States) takes the listener on a roller-coaster ride of emotion.
In spite of reassurances that this would not be an ABBA tribute musical or the band's story, Andersson and Ulvaeus were initially reluctant. So, Craymer began the long campaign of persuading the two to lend their songs to the project. In 1995, her tenacity paid off. They agreed, provided she could come up with a story strong enough to carry the songs...and a writer who could unlock the potential she'd spotted. In 1997, years after she had approached the men behind ABBA, Craymer met playwright Catherine Johnson, whom she believed had the talent and sensibility for the job.
Craymer briefed Johnson, and the producer asked the writer to note how ABBA's songs fell into two distinct groupings: the younger, more playful and innocent songs such as "Honey, Honey" and "Dancing Queen," and the more mature, reflective and emotional songs such as "The Winner Takes It All" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You." Craymer believed the songs suggested a story that could span generations.
Too, Craymer felt Johnson might consider that weddings and holidays were themes suggested by Ulvaeus' lyrics. Craymer recalls, "I told Catherine you have to forget the songs. It is your source material only, and the story has to work without the songs. It is exactly what she achieved."
For Johnson, the starting point was to read ABBA's lyrics from A to Z, build the framework of a stand-alone story and choose only songs that would logically drive her narrative. Still, she felt she must be mindful that the tempo of the songs she used from ABBA's catalogue complement the action. Not an easy task.
The result was a heartwarming and uplifting story about two generations of women, young love and love the second time around...not to mention friendship, discovering one's identity and wish fulfillment. Johnson and Craymer felt that the story had universal resonance, with an appeal that crossed age, gender and national boundaries. Just as ABBA's timeless music and lyrics do.
With a working script, Craymer began the search for a director. She persuaded respected theater and opera director Phyllida Lloyd to join the company, and Lloyd immediately responded to Mamma Mia! Drawn to the songs, the notoriously calm, methodical director sums, "This was the musical Benny and Björn didn't realize they'd written."
Björn Ulvaeus worked closely with Lloyd, Craymer and Johnson, giving feedback on each new draft. More of the crew, including choreographer ANTHONY VAN LAAST, were added-along with an "A-list" of stage designers, including MARK THOMPSON (sets and costumes), HOWARD HARRISON (lighting), MARTIN KOCH (musical supervisor and orchestrator) and ANDREW BRUCE and BOBBY AITKEN (sound designers)-and the team workshopped the production in London a year before it was to open.
Of the process, Ulvaeus recalls: "Things were changed, songs were taken in and thrown out. By then, Catherine knew every lyric and was familiar with these hundred songs or so of the catalogue. The ground rule was not to change them, and given that, it is amazing how it still was possible to weave a story."
Benny Andersson waited until the first preview to sit down and see the production, and was quite moved by how well it turned out. "I think that the biggest surprise for people who go to see it is that whatever they think it is before they go, they come out with a totally different experience," he says. "The songs are good, but the context in this intelligent, witty way that they put together the old lyrics and used them to bring the story forward was amazing. I'm Catherine Johnson's biggest fan."
The first show opened on April 6, 1999, at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, which was deemed a good omen as ABBA had won the Eurovision Song Contest on the same date in 1976. The stage production was given the kind of rapturous reception it has grown accustomed to ever since. Mamma Mia! opened in the U.S. in November 2000 at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. In October 2001, the musical debuted on Broadway, bringing in $27 million in advance ticket sales (one of the highest in theater history), and, in 2002, the show received five Tony Award nominations. In February 2003, the show opened at the Mandalay Bay Theatre in Las Vegas, and played its 1000th show in June 2005 (becoming one of the longest-running Broadway plays in Las Vegas).
The story is now theater history. Mamma Mia! has become a global entertainment phenomenon. There have been 20 productions of Mamma Mia!, and currently nine are generating more than $8 million a week in ticket sales. More than 30 million people have seen the show worldwide. More than 17,000 people see the show around the world every night, and Mamma Mia! has already grossed more than $2 billion at the theatrical box office. The show has premiered in more cities worldwide faster than any other musical in history; it has opened in more than 170 major cities since the first production in London almost a decade ago.
Explaining the phenomenon, Craymer sums: "Whoever the audience is, whatever age the audience is, they see themselves up on the stage in some form. They seem to totally immerse themselves in the experience. The songs have a magical and timeless quality."


ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Money, Money, Money:
Putting the Creative Team Together

Soon after the show opened in London, several companies expressed interest in making the musical Mamma Mia! into a film. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's company, Playtone, would ultimately become Littlestar's (Judy Craymer's company) producing partner for the film. Executive producer Hanks recalls of seeing the show: "By the twelfth minute, I was standing up singing along with the music."
But Craymer was in no hurry to translate the musical into a musical romantic comedy for the screen. "Mamma Mia! begged to be a movie," she said, "but first, I had to get the shows to the point where it was appropriate to make that transition." There was still much of a journey for Mamma Mia! on the stage, and the team needed to focus on the show and new openings internationally.
In 2003, after Mamma Mia! had opened across Europe, America, Australia and Asia, Craymer felt the time was right to adapt it for the screen. She contacted Gary Goetzman at Playtone again and asked if they would be interested in partnering to produce the film. Happily, Playtone was, and a deal was made.
Provides producer Goetzman: "The most important factor in translating Mamma Mia! to film was to capture the tone, energy and spirit it has on stage. We knew if we could do that, we would make a great movie." For Goetzman and Craymer, that meant keeping as much of the original formula as possible. He continues, "Our job would be to merely translate what they'd envisioned onto the screen, and it has been seamless."
From the beginning of the project, he believed that the film could intensify the enormous fun and enjoyment that the show had already established. Goetzman offers, "With film, you can get closer to the characters and focus the audience on what you want them to see. You can enhance the brilliant elements of the play that people all over the world have loved for years."
Lloyd and Johnson were more than ready to join them in the task. Says Lloyd, "Mamma Mia! was always a movie. It's set on location on a magical island. In many ways, it was bursting to get off the stage and into the cinema. It has just leapt out."
For her part, Johnson was up for the challenge of adapting her stage play into a screenplay. "It was an opportunity for me to further explore the emotional core of the story," she explains. "On stage, if there was a dance number, I could just write 'dance number;' that was it. On screen, I had to actually write in the whole sequence of what happened within that scene and keep the narrative going. So, it's actually about twice the amount of work I've had to do before."
The challenges of expanding a stage play into a musical romantic comedy was not lost on Johnson. For example, the filmed Mamma Mia! allowed her to take the "Dancing Queen" sequence out of the bedroom stage setup and bring a troupe of women down to the harbor dock. Relates the writer, "We are able to start in one small space and take the scene off to a much larger location."
Adds Craymer of the potential: "We also show how all the characters get to the island. In the stage, you're very restricted, whereas in the film, we could follow the journey of how the three possible fathers arrive on the island."
Shooting her musical film at Pinewood Studios in London on the huge 007 stage and on location in Greece was liberating for the director. In order to further explore the use of space on film, Lloyd actually pre-shot the film with previous cast members from the stage production. "It was really for me to work out certain things about structures of songs and whether the stage choreography really needed to be completely reinvented or thrown out. At the essence of it was getting a camera in my hand and figuring out [when the song tracks came on] when the camera moved and when it didn't.
"I was determined that the camera language was going to be different for every song," Lloyd continues, "not just for the sake of it, but so that it would do something different to the audience-according to what the plot required at the moment. I wanted to get inside the scenes, because I'd always been outside them in the theater. I parked myself right in the middle of a piece, like "Voulez-Vous," and presented Sophie's point-of-view with my camera."
For producer Craymer, it was an exciting prospect to increase the scale of the show, both visually and thematically, with the continued help of the men behind ABBA. "The involvement of Benny and Björn continued to be crucial," says Craymer. "To have them working in a hands-on way, reworking the music and recording with the actors was an incredibly exciting prospect for us."
"It has been tremendously joyful, especially collaborating with the actors who have been so incredibly well prepared. It's a totally uplifting experience," says Andersson.
Adds professional partner Ulvaeus, "We have had so much fun. The actors have been delivering exactly what is needed. It's been wonderful."
Craymer and Goetzman would only agree to the musical film if the core group that achieved success with the stage musical stayed together. Craymer reflects, "There is something we can't quite put our finger on that we call the 'essence of Mamma Mia!,' or 'the Mamma Mia! factor,' and we have developed a shorthand between us that was necessary to take Mamma Mia! from the stage to the screen."
Also bringing their enthusiasm and perspectives-and a much-needed understanding of "the Mamma Mia! factor"-are director of photography Haris Zambarloukos, production designer Maria Djurkovic, costume designer Ann Roth and makeup designer TINA EARNSHAW, whose combined talents and shared vision have created the film's signature look. Says Lloyd, "We've always looked to build teams of people whom we'd want to be on holiday with. When you're working as fast as this and under such stress, you have to be around people you like."
Take a Chance on Me:
Casting the Film

With an accomplished behind-the-scenes production team, the filmmakers looked to find a cast just as amazing. Craymer had always said songs were the stars of the show, but after she looked around the table at the read-through, she admits, "I had to eat my words!"
Cast in the lead role of Donna was the incomparable Academy Award®-winning actress Meryl Streep, known for her dramatic and versatile roles in countless films and considered by many to be one of the greatest living American actors. Mamma Mia! is Streep's first full-on movie musical, though she has done singing work in Postcards From the Edge and A Prairie Home Companion.
Says Craymer of the production's choice for Donna: "We had always leant towards Meryl Streep playing the lead character. It was beyond joyful that she said yes to the offer immediately. We knew she had seen the show on Broadway a few years ago, as she'd written a rather wonderful letter to the cast, telling them how much she loved the show and how she'd wanted to get up on stage and feel what it was like to be part of Mamma Mia! Like schoolgirls, we kept this letter."
"We dreamt of asking Meryl to play Donna," says director Lloyd. "We knew she sang; we knew she wanted to do a musical. She combines everything that is required. She's one of those unique actors who can laugh the world's laughs and cry the world's tears. That's what Mamma Mia! needed, and we have it in her."
Streep had indeed seen the show in New York and recounts, "It was pure joy." She was drawn to the role for its humanity, its spirit and, of course, the music. "The songs are timeless," says Streep. "They just enter your body. When I came to learn them, I found I knew every single one. They have amazing hooks and great melodies."
Streep also responded to the fact that women had created Mamma Mia! and this would be a challenging, physical role that demanded a great deal of stamina. Among other moves, she would have to scale the side of a 40-foot building and sing "Mamma Mia" while balancing precariously on a rooftop. Too, she would sing "Dancing Queen" while performing a series of stunts, which included sliding down banisters to jumping off a jetty and into the sea.
Laughs Streep, "I was told that I was going to climb up the goat house wall while singing 'Mamma Mia.' I thought, 'How big could a goat house be?' The goat house turned out to be this sheer wall. I was basically doing a Spider-Man stunt, and I got in shape really quickly. It was the first week, and I thought, 'Whew! I better do my exercises every night.'"
Cast to play the (un)welcome dads were Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård. Says Lloyd, "We've got three men with incredible warmth and humor, and an intrinsic understanding of what Mamma Mia! is and what it requires. Each of these actors has the skill to take us on this incredible journey from a place in their lives where they're all a bit stuck, a bit lost, to their liberation and literally letting their hair down on a magical island."
As excited as Pierce Brosnan was at being offered the role, he admits to being initially terrified at the thought of having to sing and dance. Brosnan says, "I experienced sheer terror at the idea. I don't think I have ever been so nervous about a job. In the end, I just surrendered to the whole experience, and had a great time doing it. It's actually quite exhilarating to sing and to express your emotions that way." He acknowledges that, in the end, the nerves helped: "Fear will drive you to great lengths to try and get something perfect and meaningful. The months of anxiety paid off."
"Mamma Mia! has this insidious magic," says the man cast as Harry Bright, Colin Firth. "It does tend to get to everybody." Recently seen in Then She Found Me, Firth acknowledges there is something about the musical that is "conducive to abandoning yourself, rather like people do at the end of the show." Firth responded to several elements of the project: "There's a real tenderness about the notion of these three grizzled, middle-aged men who find out there's more to their lives than they thought. The greatest pleasure of doing this has been working with this cast. Little bits of extra inspiration come up just because we're all having fun."
Of his director, he continues: "Phyllida has an amazing way of informing moments that don't seem to have been important, with texture, or using an angle that could make the moment more interesting. It's wonderfully economic and precise filmmaking."
Completing the trio is Stellan Skarsgård of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, who was intimidated by a different challenge of a musical film: dancing. In spite of being wary of dancing, "something I haven't done sober in 30 years," Skarsgård admits, "I enjoyed it enormously and tried to have as much fun as I could. The whole experience has been totally liberating. All you can do is enjoy it and go for it."
What was most humorous for Skarsgård was the concept of men playing the supporting roles, those conventionally performed by women in male-led films. He laughs, "Nobody is really interested in our psychology. We are the bimbos in the film!"
Cast as The Dynamos are Julie Walters, beloved British star of stage and screen, and Tony Award-winning actress Christine Baranski, one of the musical theater industry's most-honored actresses, who was seen in the filmed production of Chicago. Respectively, they play the pragmatic Rosie and the multi-divorcée Tanya.
Walters accepted the part without hesitation. "I can't tell you how much I loved the show," she says. "It has a real irony and wit to it." Though Walters has experience in singing and was less fazed at the prospect than the actors who play Sophie's dads, the dancing was another matter. "I beat the floor at home to death practicing the dancing," she laughs.
Explains Baranski about her interest in making a filmed version of Mamma Mia!: "What holds this together so well is this marvelous story about deep relationships. One of the great challenges and pleasures for me-and Meryl and Julie-was creating this sense of an old and textured friendship. It was easy to connect to Meryl and Julie-they are both awesome women. When they cast this film, they considered actors who would tap into what the filmmakers call 'the Mamma Mia! spirit,' which is an openness, a sense of fun and adventure."
No stranger to singing and dancing on stage and screen, Baranski underscores the daunting task the cast was about to face: "There's a tendency to think ABBA songs will be easy to sing-because they're so catchy perhaps-but they are much more complicated than one would think. They demand a certain style. Benny and Björn are superb musicians, and their harmonies and rhythms are complex. They are very exacting about what they want."
The filmmakers had very specific ideas about the roles of Sophie and Dominic, and in Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper, they found the embodiment of their young lovers. Explains Craymer: "Finding Sophie was a huge task. She had to be impish, but innocent at the same time. She had to be fun, and she needed to sing really well, of course. Amanda ticked every box; she is our ideal Sophie."
Seyfried, known to audiences from her standout roles as "weather girl" Karen in Mean Girls and as Sarah Henrickson, daughter of a polygamist in HBO's Big Love, had previous singing and dance experience. But she would be up against a veritable who's who of young Hollywood eager to land the part. Seyfried describes being chosen for the role of Sophie as "every girl's dream."
The auditioning process was intense. Up against a number of young women, Seyfried's astonishing vocals distinguished her. Recalls Lloyd of the audition: "Amanda has that completely winning, radiant warmth and an almost childlike youthfulness. She also has a fabulously natural voice that made Benny and Björn ask her to sing tracks she wasn't even singing in this film. She walked in and, from the first note she sang, you could feel everybody in the room go, 'This is it.'"
During her audition process, Seyfried saw the show in Las Vegas and was hooked. "It was fantastic," she relates. Like others, she acknowledges the timeless quality of ABBA's songs and relished the opportunity of performing them. Seyfried also admits how excited she was at the prospect of following in the footsteps of the select actresses who had played opposite Streep: "She's incredible. She's so aware of how people might react to her presence and did her best to make me feel comfortable. I feel I have learned so much from the opportunity of working opposite her."
Playing opposite Seyfried is young British actor Dominic Cooper of The History Boys and Starter for 10. The chemistry between his Mamma Mia! fiancée and Cooper was palpable in the screen tests. Says Craymer: "Dominic has a charming yet playful factor. He can sing, and the girls love him. He is perfect in the role of Sky."
"It's an incredible cast, and it's a very exciting project to be a part of," remarks Cooper. "The fun started during the audition process," he says, "and has continued ever since. It's such an exposing thing, to sing. I really admire singers because you can't hide behind all of your little sneaky acting tricks or speaking, and it's very revealing."
About his director, Cooper offers: "She's incredible with actors. Most of us really need to be guided through this; it's new territory, and you couldn't ask for a director who knows her stuff more than she does."
The positive feelings expressed by the cast were characteristic of the Mamma Mia! experience felt by the stage productions globally. Concludes Craymer: "It has always been very important to me, as a producer, that everyone who's part of the team has a great time. I believe that vibrancy, that good feeling, also has to come from the screen for the audience to enjoy it."
The principal cast is supported by actors including PHILIP MICHAEL and CHRIS JARVIS as Sky's best mates, Pepper and Eddie; RACHEL MCDOWALL and ASHLEY LILLEY as Sophie's school friends (now bridesmaids), Lisa and Ali; the inevitable Greek Chorus; and some 20 stags (men) and 20 hens (women).
Cast set and crew hired, it was time to begin principal photography at a refurbished studio and to escape to an exotic, lush Greek isle where anything could happen.
Lay All Your Love on Me:
The Music of Mamma Mia!

The leap from stage to screen was a challenging one, not least of all because it was Andersson's desire that every actor should perform his or her own vocals. Musical director Martin Lowe, who joined the Mamma Mia! team in 1999, says, "It set the bar quite high. Having worked on the stage show, I knew what was required of performers to deliver the songs. The songs demand a great deal of skill and style."
Lowe was present at cast auditions. "Ultimately, I was hired to serve Benny's music," he offers. "I was not about to put my name to something that might compromise that." During the casting process, Lowe worked in Stockholm with Andersson and the original ABBA band to record the score for the film, which involved using the cast of the Swedish stage production of Mamma Mia! to record the backing vocals for the big ensemble numbers in the film such as "Voulez-Vous" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"
Lowe's job gained momentum as the cast was confirmed. He worked with key cast to find each of their keys on phrasing and to give them confidence before going into the studio to record. To nail the best performance, Lloyd took advantage of different song recording options: both prerecording the vocal tracks so that the actors had to lip sync to their own performance, and having the actors sing live on set to a guide track.
Explains executive producer Mark Huffam of the process: "The tradition in musicals is to do a prerecord and then mime. Because we have such fabulous actors in this film, they were given the opportunity to sing live in the more organic numbers. We left the option open, and we've done it both ways. We've done a lot of playback on all the bigger dance numbers, but on some of the more personal songs, we've done them live."
The cast appreciated the choice. Says Streep: "Working with Benny and Björn on recording the songs was very interesting, as I did it in advance of really knowing who my character was or what her voice was. I found, as we shot the film and recorded live, the voice I was singing in was quite different to the one I was hearing in my earphone. So the voice evolved, and it was great to have the option of doing it live too, as the energy and the physicality of the acting performance dictates how the song is delivered in a way I couldn't have known when we first recorded it."
Firth agrees: "It's tough to sing a song before you establish a character; a song in a musical is not a disembodied thing. It's part of the narrative and, as such, the performance has to be right for the character. You have to bring the performance to the song or the song to the performance."
Brosnan commends of his musical director: "Martin instilled such confidence in me. He came out to California; we set up in my office one day and just started banging out the songs. For the next few months, I just listened to them day in and day out, driving the kids to school," he continues. "When it came time to record, I walked into the studios and there's Benny and Björn, and there's Phyllida and Judy...and it's show time. As for my singing, they just said, 'Great.' They liked what I did, and it was very easy. I wasn't alone because I had Stellan and Colin right there, equally terrified."
"I think I'm most proud of Dominic," Lowe says of the young actor who admits he had "moments of panic" before meeting with his musical director. "He worked so hard. We literally went through each song line by line, and I tried to show him how to sing like a pop singer."
Fellow countryman Stellan Skarsgård also enjoyed his experience working with the men of ABBA. Of Ulvaeus and Andersson he says: "They're so calm and very Swedish. Here are two other fellow Swedes just standing there, and they were very nice and encouraging, and they just let me sing on."
Amanda Seyfried also had Lowe, Ulvaeus, Andersson and Lloyd present during her recordings, but it couldn't have been more of a freeing experience. "It was so exciting and surreal to work with them. They didn't direct me too much," she says. "I had a tone and sound they liked, so they just let me be free with it."
Lowe points out that many of the songs Seyfried has to sing for the film are tricky, such as the complicated phrasing in parts of "I Have a Dream." "The line 'I believe in angels' falls on a break and sits in an awkward place in the song," he provides. "Some women at the audition just couldn't hit it. Thank the Lord we found Amanda, who just came in and did it. When she walked out of her audition, the camera operator and the sound guy just went, 'This is Sophie.' And they hadn't spoken all day!"
Adds director Lloyd: "Amanda makes you feel utterly sympathetic and protective toward her, right from the get-go of the movie. She's instantly lovable, and that's crucial about Sophie."
It was an exhausting process for all the cast. The filmmakers took off their hats to the performers for the work that they did. "ABBA music is complex music," suggests Rita Wilson. "The songs are hard to sing, very melodic and have gorgeous harmonies. It doesn't become tiring listening to them. There is an exuberance and an unselfconsciousness to the music. The songs allow you to act giddy, goofy, sweet, young and silly-just as they are wrapped in deceptively complex melodies."
Dancing Queen:
Choreography in the Film

Mamma Mia!'s choreographer since the beginning, Anthony Van Laast was curious to take the musical from stage to screen. "The challenge for me, both on stage and screen," says Van Laast, "was to make the choreography narrative-based and character-driven, so that it appears to be improvised and spontaneous. In fact, it is really structured and developed."
In the early stages of preproduction, Van Laast spent time rehearsing with Lloyd and her troupe of dancers just how exactly to make the dance work on film: which numbers would work, how many dancers were needed, where to position cameras, etc. Van Laast retained some of the original movements from the musical but, overall, mostly re-choreographed the dance for the screen. Such choices were crucial to facilitate working with twice as many dancers and adapting the dances to allow dialogue to continue throughout the film.
To help make the transition seamless, Van Laast suggested casting the majority of the dancers and the stand-ins from the pool of talented original performers of the stage show. Their ability to move gracefully and learn the dance routines would prove an invaluable time-saver, and immensely beneficial to the principal artists who could watch their steps.
Together with associate choreographer NICHOLA TREHERNE and assistant choreographer TIM STANLEY-both of whom had also worked on the show for a number of years-Van Laast put the actors through the paces, rehearsing for weeks prior to the start of shoot and continuing with workouts and warm-ups every morning once filming commenced.
Having Stanley and Treherne on set helped make the process of staging and choreographing the large number of dancers a good deal easier. "Tim was much on the floor, checking that everything was fine amongst the dancers," notes Van Laast. "Nichola acted as an intermediary between the dancers and myself, as I was on the monitors. If I saw something that was not working correctly, I'd say to Nichola, 'Could you go make sure that that person moves a bit to the left or moves to the right,' so I got the perfect pictures all the time."
Though Baranski has had years of experience working on musicals and musical film, she admits that she felt slightly nervous and took up extra dance and movement classes to prepare. "One is always nervous about singing and dancing," she says, "even if you're a seasoned musical performer, because it's a demanding genre. With music, you have to come in on a certain note or a certain rhythm and get your leg up at a certain time or turn or land at a certain time.
"When I heard I got this job, I immediately started doing private pilates and jazz classes, and stretching and going on the elliptical and working up stamina and flexibility," she continues. "When I got to London, I found out where to take some ballet and jazz classes."
Laughs Streep: "I'm really doing this to embarrass my 20-something-year-old children. The dancing part will mortify them. They'll have to move to Alaska or someplace. Just the overalls alone are gonna do it for them."
Continues Walters: "I've just got little wee bits of dancing, but it's the most amazing dance. I could have gone on shooting it for weeks with these gorgeous male dancers. I've had this gorgeous partner, Philip, whipping me round and, of course, dancing with Stellan is really good fun."
Van Laast acknowledges how exciting it has been to turn his actors into dancers: "They bring something to the movement that is so real. When you work with dancers, it's so perfect, so fluid, there are no edges. Working with actors, they give the dance character, as opposed to it just being a slick routine. I have learned so much about finding character through movement."
Our Last Summer:
Shooting Mamma Mia!

Following several weeks of music and vocal recordings, six weeks of combined costume fittings, makeup tests and dance rehearsals, the Mamma Mia! shoot began on the newly refurbished 007 Stage at Pinewood in June 2007. The lavish composite set, designed by production designer Maria Djurkovic, gave the filmmakers the opportunity to expand the work that Craymer, Lloyd and Johnson had achieved on stage.
Djurkovic relied on the script as her starting point, and not necessarily the show. "On stage, you're creating much more of a fantasy," she explains. The designer exercised artistic license to make this musical world a believable one. "On film," she continues, "while it was important to maintain a certain theatricality, I had to create a world that was utterly believable and credible."
It was a daunting task to build a mini village, while keeping in mind that the set would have to integrate credibly with each aspect of the Greek isle's location shoot, but Djurkovic rose to the challenge. She provides: "The trick to making this work is that it should be visually joyous...it's a musical. The spiritual bit is happy and joyous and slightly frivolous. But at the same time, the audience has to believe what's happening."
Adds producer Goetzman: "Part of the translation of taking stage to film is in the design. We had to figure out how to take the stage set (which spun on a turntable) and turn it into a film experience. Maria did a fantastic job, and I think people will enjoy the beautiful transition to natural, yet stylized, settings."
The location-scouting trip in Greece helped inform the style and design of Villa Donna, and both Lloyd and Djurkovic responded to the notion of the resort as a restored building. Overseeing an array of designers, carpenters, plasterers and painters, Djurkovic instilled in the team a precise attention to color, texture and other design details.
After nine weeks of shooting on the Pinewood stages, the unit moved to Greece, where it first shot on the island of Skiathos for five days. Next, it was off to Skopelos for two weeks and, finally, to the mainland in Damouhari for five days. All locations had been determined following an extensive location scout of 21 Greek islands once the project had been green-lit.
Supported by an enthusiastic local crew, the unit faced a number of challenges, including shipping large amounts of equipment, the vagaries of weather, working at sea, a plague of wasps and accommodating a cast and crew of some 210 people on small islands. Lloyd was game for the challenges and says: "We've always been excited by changing what we're doing according to the context. So it's very much meat and drink to us to be in a more rocky place, or a wetter place and having to adapt to the terrain."
The director, familiar with the landscape as she had backpacked across Greece when she was 17, expounds upon the challenges that come with shooting on location. While she views the islands as paradise, she says, "You have to be prepared to abandon all your best-laid plans. We fell in love with some of these locations quite a long time ago. Then, suddenly, you find that your little beach has been eaten up by surf and you've got to pick up sticks and dash into the woods and do something different. You just have to be absolutely prepared for anything."
Some staggeringly beautiful locations form the backdrop for the action in Mamma Mia! The Old Port on the island of Skiathos is where Sam, Bill and Harry meet for the first time on their way to the fictional island of Kalokairi, and where Rosie and Tanya board the ferry. Skiathos, the smallest of the Sporades group of islands, is located in the northwestern Aegean Sea. While the smallest, it is also the most developed island of the group and features many fine-sand beaches, several which provided a great setting for many of the mainland scenes in the film. A hill on the east side of the island features an amazing view of the St. Nikolaos Bell Tower (of the small church of Aghios Nikolaos) where Sophie sends off her three wedding invitations to Sam, Bill and Harry.
The rugged and lush island of Skopelos, also amongst the Sporades Islands, housed the majority of the Greek film shoot. Kastani Beach, with its blue-green waters, is where Tanya performs "Does Your Mother Know," where Sophie and Sky are serenaded by the stags in "Lay All Your Love on Me" and where Donna and the dads bid Sophie and Sky goodbye in "I Have a Dream."
A mountainous peninsula near the rocky Glysteri Beach (on the island of Skopelos) served as the wedding departure point for Sophie. A cliff near the top of this peninsula also served as the spot where Sophie, Bill, Harry and Sam sang portions of "Our Last Summer," before they jumped off the rocks into the clear waters.
In a bit of movie magic, Pinewood and Greece were once again blended seamlessly. The number "Dancing Queen" starts in Donna's bedroom and opens out into the courtyard (both sets at Pinewood), then expands into the space "outside" the Villa Donna (above Glysteri Beach). The sequence progresses into the village-through an olive grove, down steps into the harbor and along the jetty. Those scenes were shot in the romantic hamlet of Damouhari in the Mouresi area along the eastern Pelion coast of mainland Greece.
The wedding party arrives at the top of a mountainous peninsula (about an hour from Skopelos town), where Donna sings "The Winner Takes It All" to Sam. Sky and Sophie's wedding chapel (matched at Pinewood) was located at the top of a 100-meter rock formation that juts out into the sea alongside here. It was crafted on the site of the monastery of Agios Ioannis Prodromos, near the town of Glossa. The original chapel was said to have 105 carved steps leading to the entrance, and the "rebuilt" chapel added flambeaus lighting the pathway up to the entrance.
Says Goetzman of shooting a musical romantic comedy in these lush locales: "You can't help but move and stomp your feet while filming these songs. All that quiet reverence cast and crew normally have by camera is out the window-everyone's rocking; everyone's having fun."
Super Trouper:
Roth's Costume Design

In order to complete the look, the filmmakers hired prolific, Academy Award®winning costume designer Ann Roth for Mamma Mia! Much like the production designer, Roth was faced with the challenge of creating a look for the characters that was not only fanciful, but also realistic. Though she had seen the stage production, the filmmakers requested she not simply just use costume designer Mark Thompson's lauded designs as the basis for her work. While wanting to keep the essence of the musical, Roth took a realistic approach to creating the clothing.
The designer sketched ideas for costumes and sent them to Phyllida Lloyd, who quite loved them. Much of Roth's prep work was done in New York, and some of the costumes were created from clothing she bought in obscure places. "There's a suit in this movie that I bought on 138th Street in the Dominican Republic. I love to feel that I can go to odd and unconventional places to buy clothes. I don't order stuff over the phone, but I am the girl who has to go and dig it up."
Roth delved into and imagined each character's background (from what their apartments would look like to their salaries) and came up with their costumes, down to the tiniest details. For example, she imagined the three possible fathers receiving a last-minute invitation to fly to Greece, and depending on their lifestyle, pictured them throwing clothes into a beat-up old suitcase and jet-setting across the world. "It comes as second nature to be realistic," Roth says. "I would say these clothes are real. You have some rotten suitcase or a backpack, and rolled up inside is an old linen suit or a new linen suit, but it's rolled up because that's the life you lead."
For Meryl Streep's character, who takes a hands-on approach to running her villa, Roth imagined that clothes weren't her first priority. Explains the designer: "I think that Donna says to a friend who lives in Athens: 'My daughter is getting married next month; I need a dress, and I would like it not to look like an old lady's dress.' The woman arrives on the boat with two dresses in a box and she chooses one."
There are moments when the costumes take on a more flamboyant look, as with Donna and the Dynamos' "Super Trouper" sequence. Roth imagined that when the singing group originally got together, they were asked to perform on a carnival cruise and ended up with wild costumes. "They're performance costumes," she explains. "I did the most incredible research with '70s groups, including ABBA. Those are costumes. They don't wear those to the supermarket."
Says Lloyd of Roth's creative approach to her work: "I found her to have a ferocious, open and brilliantly creative spirit. She seemed to embody everything I've been told movie costumes would not be about, which was getting it all cut and dried months ahead and producing photographs of costumes, and having it all in the bag. She worked quite spiritually and felt that the character was somewhere there, waiting to emerge in its clothes."
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After 14 weeks, they returned to Pinewood to shoot the end title sequence: the principal cast members performing "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen." It was the fitting way to end the Mamma Mia! shoot.
Offering her parting thoughts on the film, Streep reflects on why this story has resonated for so many and what she wants audiences to take away from Mamma Mia!: "It's all about past mistakes-your big fat regrets, your dreams, your hopes, your happiness-right there where you live."
Brosnan comments on the popularity of the songs and the timeless lyrics that have endeared the band for generations: "Everyone has their favorite song. Everyone's listened to ABBA; everyone's danced to ABBA; everyone's sung ABBA. Ultimately, people just love the songs and they have a place in their hearts for them."
Our final words go to the women who have seen their dream cross mediums and continents. Of their hopes for the project, producer Craymer, screenwriter Johnson and director Lloyd offer the following...
Says Craymer: "We've re-branded ABBA into a whole different experience. They're incredibly accessible, universal lyrics that everyone can relate to."
Screenwriter Johnson surmises: "Although the characters haven't changed, we get to know them better. The songs and the spectacle of Mamma Mia! are now so much larger. We really are in this place now; we're on this Greek island and living the lives that these people are living."
Our director concludes: "The story is the ultimate fairy tale. It touches something really fundamental in the audience about identity, about lost parents, lost children. It's an epic story."
Now I really know. My, my, I could never let you go.
Universal Pictures presents-in association with Relativity Media-a Playtone/Littlestar Production: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia!, starring Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski. Music and lyrics are by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, based on the songs of ABBA. The music supervisor is Becky Bentham, and the musical director is Martin Lowe. The choreographer is Anthony Van Laast. Mamma Mia!'s costume designer is Ann Roth; the editor is Lesley Walker. The production designer is Maria Djurkovic; the director of photography is Haris Zambarloukos, BSC. The executive producers are Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks, Mark Huffam. The film is produced by Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman. The screenplay is by Catherine Johnson. Mamma Mia! is directed by Phyllida Lloyd. (C) 2008 Universal Studios www.mammamiamovie.com


ABOUT THE CAST
A two-time Academy Award® winner and recipient of a record-breaking 14 Oscar® nominations, MERYL STREEP (Donna) has portrayed an astonishing array of roles in a career that has cut its own unique path from the theatre through film and television.
Most recently, Streep appeared opposite Robert Redford and Tom Cruise in Lions for Lambs, which Redford also directed, and in New Line's Rendition, with Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal. She will next appear opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams in Doubt, and opposite Stanley Tucci and Amy Adams in Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia.
Streep made her film debut in 1977's Julia, opposite Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. In her second screen role, she starred opposite Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter, which earned Streep her first Academy Award® nomination. The following year, she won an Academy Award® for her role opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer. She then received her third Academy® nomination for The French Lieutenant's Woman and later went on to win the Oscar® for Best Actress for her role in Sophie's Choice, where she starred alongside Peter MacNicol and Kevin Kline.
Other early film credits include Streep's Oscar®-nominated performances in Mike Nichols' Silkwood; Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa; Ironweed, directed by Hector Babenco; and Fred Schepisi's A Cry in the Dark, which also won her the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, The New York Film Critics Circle and an AFI award. She also appeared in Falling in Love with Robert De Niro, Mike Nichols' Heartburn and Woody Allen's Manhattan.
In the 1990s, Streep took on a variety of roles including She-Devil and Postcards from the Edge, for which she received Golden Globe nominations and an Oscar® nomination for the latter; Defending Your Life, with Albert Brooks; Death Becomes Her, opposite Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis; The House of the Spirits; The River Wild; Clint Eastwood's screen adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County, which won her a SAG Award and Golden Globe and Oscar® nominations; Marvin's Room, with Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio, which earned her another Golden Globe nomination; Barbet Schroeder's Before and After; One True Thing, opposite Renée Zellweger, for which Streep received SAG, Golden Globe and Oscar® nominations as well as the Golden Camera Award at the Berlin International Film Festival; Dancing in Lughnasa; and Wes Craven's Music of the Heart, which earned Streep her twelfth Academy Award® nomination.
In 2003, Streep's work in The Hours won her SAG and Golden Globe nominations. That same year, her performance in Spike Jonze's Adaptation. won her a Golden Globe Award for Supporting Actress and BAFTA and Oscar® nominations. Streep's other recent works include The Manchurian Candidate; Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; Prime, with Uma Thurman; Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion; Evening; and The Devil Wears Prada, which earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress as well as Academy Award®, SAG and BAFTA nominations.
In theater, Streep appeared in the 1976 Broadway double-bill of 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and A Memory of Two Mondays, the former which won her the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Theater World Award and a Tony nomination. Other theater credits include Secret Service; The Cherry Orchard; the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Henry V and Measure for Measure, opposite Sam Waterston; the Brecht/Weill musical Happy End; Alice at the Palace, which won her an Obie; Central Park Productions of The Taming of the Shrew and The Seagull; and most recently, Streep appeared in the in Tony Kushner adaptation of Mother Courage.
On television, Streep won Emmys for the eight-part miniseries Holocaust and for the Mike Nichols-directed HBO movie Angels in America, which also won her Golden Globe and SAG Awards. Streep was also Emmy-nominated for her performance in ...First Do No Harm, which she also co-produced with director Jim Abrahams.
In 2004, Meryl was honored with an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2008, was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Recognized internationally as one of the most dashing and skilled dramatic actors in Hollywood today, Golden Globe Award nominee PIERCE BROSNAN (Sam) received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture for his role as Julian Noble in the critically acclaimed film The Matador in 2005. Additionally, he received a nomination for this performance for Best Actor in a Lead Role from the Irish Film & Television Academy Awards.
Most recently, Brosnan starred with Chris Cooper and Patricia Clarkson in Married Life for director Ira Sachs. The film is a 1940s-set drama about a married man who cheats and, to spare his wife the shame of a divorce, plots to kill her.
In addition to his work in front of the camera, Brosnan has always had an interest in the art of filmmaking. Having achieved international stardom as an actor, Brosnan expanded the range of his film work by launching his own production company, Irish DreamTime, in 1996, along with producing partner Beau St. Clair.
Apart from The Matador, Irish DreamTime has produced five other films to date: The Nephew (1998), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Evelyn (2002), Laws of Attraction (2004) and Shattered (2007). The company's first studio project, The Thomas Crown Affair, was a critical and box-office success and one of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing romantic thrillers in years. Evelyn, directed by Bruce Beresford, opened to critical acclaim at the Chicago and Toronto international film festivals and also garnered rave reviews. Laws of Attraction, a romantic comedy that teamed Brosnan with Julianne Moore, focused on dueling divorce attorneys who fall in love. Shattered is a psychological thriller in which Brosnan stars with Maria Bello and Gerard Butler.
Upcoming projects for Irish DreamTime include the second installment of The Thomas Crown Affair.
Perhaps best known worldwide as James Bond, Brosnan reinvigorated the popularity of the Bond legacy in box-office blockbusters such as GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1999), The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002). Brosnan's first three Bond films earned more than a billion dollars at the international box office and Die Another Day alone garnered almost a half-billion dollars worldwide.
In addition to his four Bond films, three other Brosnan films-The Thomas Crown Affair, Dante's Peak (1997) and The Lawnmower Man (1992), combined, have earned hundreds of millions of dollars internationally, cementing him as one of the world's most-bankable stars.
Brosnan's other film credits include the Civil War drama Seraphim Falls (2007), in which he starred opposite Liam Neeson; John Boorman's critically acclaimed film from the John le Carré novel, The Tailor of Panama (2001); Bruce Beresford's Mister Johnson (1990); and Sir Richard Attenborough's Grey Owl (1999). In addition to The Matador, Brosnan has also shown his comedic skills in such films as Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and Mars Attacks! (1996). He also had a supporting role alongside Barbra Streisand in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).
Some of his many accolades include the 2007 Golden Camera Award for his environmental work, a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2002 Chicago Film Festival, the International Star of the Year at the Cinema Expo International in Amsterdam, an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the Dublin Institute of Technology, an Honorary Doctorate from the University College Cork and an Order of the British Empire bestowed by Her Majesty the Queen.
Brosnan was born in County Meath, Ireland, and moved to London at age 11. At 20, he enrolled in drama school and while in London, performed in several West End stage productions including Franco Zeffirelli's Fulimena and Tennessee Williams' The Red Devil Battery Sign at the York Theatre Royal. Brosnan relocated to Los Angeles in 1982 and immediately landed the role of private investigator Remington Steele on the popular ABC television series of the same name.
A classically trained British theater actor, COLIN FIRTH (Harry) is a veteran of film, television and stage, with an impressive body of work spanning more than two decades. Firth's versatility has been recognized in both dramas and comedies, garnering critical acclaim and awards including nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, an Emmy Award nomination and multiple BAFTA Award nominations. Firth is having a particularly prolific year, with four films scheduled for release this summer and several others in postproduction.
Then She Found Me surrounds a teacher in a midlife crisis, who reconnects with her biological mother whilst juggling a relationship with her ex-husband, played by Matthew Broderick, and a new interest, played by Firth. Then She Found Me was purchased for release by THINKFilm following the Toronto International Film Festival. The film was released in New York and Los Angeles on April 25, with a wide release on May 9.
In June, Firth stars in Sony Classics' film When Did You Last See Your Father? Firth and Jim Broadbent illustrate the complex relationship between a father and son on film, which is based on the best-selling memoir by Blake Morrison. The film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007. The film was released in the U.S. on June 6 and was released in the U.K. in 2007.
Firth has also recently wrapped production on Genova, directed by Michael Winterbottom. Firth stars opposite Catherine Keener in the film, which is a horror mystery story revolving around two American girls and their British father who move to Italy after their mother dies.
Also upcoming is the romantic comedy The Accidental Husband, starring Uma Thurman and directed by Griffin Dunne.
Firth has wrapped production on Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol, a 3-D-animated version of the classic Dickens tale starring Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman. The film is scheduled for release in 2009. He has also wrapped production on Easy Virtue, based on Noel Coward's play. Firth stars opposite Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes in the film.
In 2005, Firth appeared in the film Nanny McPhee, written by, and also starring Emma Thompson. He also appeared in Atom Egoyan's controversial film Where the Truth Lies, opposite Kevin Bacon. The film screened in competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2004, Firth starred in the Universal Pictures/Working Title hit Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Firth reprised his role as Mark Darcy, opposite Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant in the film, which is based on Helen Fielding's best-selling novel. The film broke numerous box-office records internationally and grossed more than $250 million worldwide.
In 2004, Firth appeared in the Oscar®-nominated film Girl With a Pearl Earring, opposite Scarlett Johanssen. Based on the best-selling novel by Tracy Chevalier, Firth portrayed the 17th-century artist Johannes Vermeer. Girl With a Pearl Earring screened at the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Hollywood Film Festival, the London Film Festival and the San Sebastian International Film Festival. The film won both the Hitchcock d'Or and the Hitchcock d'Argent at the Dinard British Film Festival. Firth was nominated for a European Film Award for his performance in the film.
In 2003, Firth appeared in the Universal Pictures film Love Actually, written and directed by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill). He appeared in the film with an outstanding ensemble cast including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Keira Knightley. At the time of its release, Love Actually broke box-office records as the highest-grossing British romantic comedy opening of all time in the U.K. and Ireland and was largest opening in the history of Working Title Films.
In 2002, Firth was seen starring opposite Rupert Everett, Reese Witherspoon and Judi Dench in the Miramax Film The Importance of Being Earnest. Prior to that, Firth appeared in the Academy Award®-winning film Shakespeare in Love, directed by John Madden. Firth portrayed Lord Wessex, the evil husband to Viola De Lesseps, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
In 1996, Firth appeared in the multi-Oscar®-winning film The English Patient, opposite Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes. His other film credits include the Marc Evans thriller Trauma; What a Girl Wants; Hope Springs; Relative Values; A Thousand Acres, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange; Apartment Zero; My Life So Far; The Secret Laughter of Women; Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch; Circle of Friends; Playmaker; and the title role in Milos Forman's Valmont, opposite Annette Bening.
On the small screen, Firth is infamous for his breakout role in 1995, when he played Mr. Darcy in the BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor and was honored with the National Television Award for Most Popular Actor. Firth's latest television appearance was in 2006 in the critically acclaimed BBC television movie Born Equal, directed by Dominic Savage (Out of Control). The film, which was shot with improvised dialogue, follows a wealthy businessman (Firth) as he struggles to help the less fortunate and finds himself inevitably drawn into their lives. In March 2004, Firth hosted NBC's legendary series Saturday Night Live. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in the critically acclaimed HBO film Conspiracy and has also received the Royal Television Society Best Actor Award and a BAFTA nomination for his performance in Tumbledown. His other television credits include Windmills on the Clyde: Making 'Donovan Quick,' Donovan Quick, Performance: The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd, Performance: The Deep Blue Sea, Hostages and the miniseries Nostromo. His London stage debut was in the West End production of Another Country, playing Bennett. He was then chosen to play the character Judd in the 1984 film adaptation, opposite Rupert Everett.
Firth is an active supporter of Oxfam International, an organization dedicated to fighting poverty and related injustice around the world. He is a co-director of Oxfam's Progreso Cafés, a chain of coffee bars founded with the intention of creating fair-trade opportunities for coffee cooperatives in Ethiopia, Honduras and Indonesia. In 2006, Firth was voted European Campaigner of the Year by European Voice magazine.
Firth resides in London, England, with his wife, Livia Giuggioli, and their children.
A major star in his native Sweden since the 1970s, STELLAN SKARSGÅRD (Bill) has become an international star of considerable reputation. He became a teen star in 1968 after playing the title role in the TV miniseries Bombi Bitt och jag.
From 1972 to 1988, he was employed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, where he starred in such productions as Vita rum (1988), Ett drömspel (1986) and Master Olof (1988), working with directors such as Alf Sjöberg, Per Verner-Carlsson and Ingmar Bergman.
Skarsgård has appeared in more than 50 films since 1982. His performance in Hans Alfredson's The Simple-Minded Murder (1982) garnered him both a Guldbagge (Swedish Oscar®) and a Silver Berlin Bear. He also played the lead in the Oscar®nominated Oxen, directed by the world-renowned cinematographer Sven Nykvist.
His first English-language role was in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1988. He followed that with his role as Russian submarine captain Tupolev in John McTiernan's The Hunt for Red October in 1990. But his breakthrough came with his riveting performance as the paraplegic in Lars von Trier's much-lauded Breaking the Waves, opposite Emily Watson, in 1996. He made two more films with von Trier: Dancer in the Dark (2000) and Dogville (2003).
Following Breaking the Waves, Skarsgård landed several supporting roles in high-profile American films such as Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting (1997) and Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997), both for which he won the Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema at the European Film Awards in 1998, and John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998). Other leading role credits in American and international cinema include Erik Skjoldbjaerg's Insomnia; Renny Harlin's Deep Blue Sea; Hans Petter Moland's Aberdeen, for which he received a Best Actor nomination at the European Film Awards in 2000; Mike Figgis' Timecode; Stewart Sugg's Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang); Daniel Sackheim's The Glass House; and István Szabó's Taking Sides, for which he received another Best Actor nomination at the European Film Awards in 2001 and won Best Actor at the Mar del Plata Film Festival.
More recently, Skarsgård played Father Merrin in Renny Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning; Cerdic in Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur, opposite Clive Owen; Father Merrin, again in Paul Schrader's Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist; King Hrothgar in Sturla Gunnarsson's Beowulf & Grendel; and, most notably, Bootstrap Bill, a compassionate and interesting portrait of a man losing himself bit by bit, in Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, opposite Johnny Depp. He was also seen as the painter Goya in Milos Forman's Goya's Ghosts, with Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman.
Skarsgård recently completed filming Duncan Ward's Boogie Woogie, opposite Gillian Anderson, Heather Graham and Amanda Seyfried.
A two-time Academy Award® nominee, JULIE WALTERS (Rosie) was most recently seen reprising her role as the maternal Mrs. Weasley in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the role she has played in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Walters was also seen last year in Julian Jarrold's Becoming Jane, a biographical portrait of a pre-fame Jane Austen, in which she played Mrs. Austen to Anne Hathaway's Jane.
Walters gained her first Oscar® nomination in 1984 for her feature film debut in the title role in Educating Rita, for which she also won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards. She earned her second Oscar® nod for her performance in Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot. Her portrayal of Billy's ballet teacher in that film also brought her BAFTA, Empire, Evening Standard Film and London Film Critics' Circle awards, in addition to Golden Globe and European Film award nominations, and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, one for Supporting Actress and a second, shared with her cast mates, for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture.
Walters has also earned BAFTA Award nominations for her roles in Personal Services and Stepping Out, having won a Variety Club ShowBiz Award for the latter. Walters includes among her other film credits Jeremy Brock's Driving Lessons, with her Harry Potter son Rupert Grint; Richard E. Grant's Wah-Wah; Nigel Cole's Calendar Girls; Lewis Gilbert's Before You Go; Roger Michell's Titanic Town; Girls' Night; Philip Goodhew's Intimate Relations; Nancy Meckler's Sister My Sister; Christopher Monger's Just Like a Woman; David Green's Buster; and Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears.
Walters has also worked extensively on television in the U.K. and recently won three consecutive BAFTA Television Awards in 2002, 2003 and 2004 for her roles in Strange Relations and Murder, for which she also won a Royal Television Society Award, and the series The Canterbury Tales, for which she also won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award. She previously earned four BAFTA Television Award nominations: in 1983, for the miniseries Boys From the Blackstuff; in 1987, for the series Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV; in 1994, for the telefilm The Wedding Gift; and in 1999, for the series Dinnerladies. Her television credits also include The Ruby in the Smoke, Ahead of the Class, The Return, Oliver Twist, Jake's Progress, Pat and Margaret, The Summer House, Julie Walters and Friends, Talking Heads and The Birthday Party, to name only a few.
An accomplished stage actress, Walters won an Olivier Award in 2001 for her performance in Arthur Miller's All My Sons and was earlier nominated for an Olivier for her work in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love. She made her London stage debut in Educating Rita, creating the role that she would later bring to the screen. Her theater credits also include productions of such plays as Jumpers, Having a Ball, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout, Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo and the musical Acorn Antiques.
In addition to her acting work, Walters saw her first novel, "Maggie's Tree," published in 2006.
DOMINIC COOPER (Sky) is quickly emerging as one of the most exciting talents in the industry. He is best known for his lauded performance as Dakin in the critically acclaimed play The History Boys, which garnered him both Drama Desk and Evening Standard award nominations. After reprising the role in the highly praised film adaptation, Cooper was nominated for the Best Newcomer Award by the British Independent Film Awards and Best Supporting Actor by the London Film Critics' Circle and was named one of Rolling Stone's Breakout Performances for 2006.
Upon completion of his professional training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Cooper landed a role in Mother Clap's Molly House at the prestigious National Theatre under resident director Nicholas Hytner. Subsequently, he starred in the Royal Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream, before rejoining Hytner at the National Theatre for His Dark Materials and The History Boys. Winner of three Olivier Awards including Best New Play, The History Boys tells the story of a group of British students and their professors as they prepare for life and the pursuit of higher learning. Written by Alan Bennett, The History Boys was made into a Fox Searchlight film, and the stage production toured Japan and New Zealand before landing on Broadway in 2006, where it was the recipient of six Tony Awards, including Best Play.
Cooper will be seen next in The Duchess, a film based on Amanda Foreman's biography of scandalous 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Directed by Saul Dibb, the film co-stars Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. The Paramount Vantage production is scheduled to be released in September 2008.
Cooper also stars as James Lacey, a young, inexperienced con, in The Escapist, directed by Rupert Wyatt. Co-starring Brian Cox and Joseph Fiennes, the dramatic prison-escape thriller recently had its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. THINKFilm is planning a fall 2008 release.
Most recently, Cooper completed filming a role in An Education, co-starring Emma Thompson, Peter Sarsgaard and Alfred Molina. The independent feature, directed by Lone Scherfig and written by famed author Nick Hornby, follows a 16-year-old's coming of age in 1960s London as she begins a relationship with a 30-year-old playboy.
Additionally, Cooper has completed filming Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, a screen adaptation of the best-selling David Foster Wallace short stories. Directed and adapted by John Krasinski, the film is currently in postproduction.
Cooper's other feature film credits include roles in the recent Tom Hanks-produced film Starter for 10, an adaptation by David Nicholls from his novel of the same name, which also premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival; Boudica; I'll Be There; Neil Jordan's The Good Thief; and the Hughes brothers' From Hell.
Cooper was last seen as the dashing and handsome Willoughby in the acclaimed BBC production of "Sense and Sensibility." Based on the beloved Jane Austen novel, the two-part television miniseries, directed by John Alexander and adapted by Andrew Davies, recently aired as part of PBS' acclaimed Masterpiece series.
Later this year, Cooper will be seen opposite Sir Anthony Sher, Rupert Graves and Stephen Dillane in God on Trial, a BBC Two production airing in the fall. The 90minute television film tells the story of a group of Jews in the Auschwitz concentration camp, who question their faith and put God on trial for breaking his covenant to care for and protect them.
Cooper's additional television credits include a series regular role on BBC's Down to Earth, Sparkling Cyanide, BBC's The Gentleman Thief, Hallmark's Davison's Eyes and Steven Spielberg's acclaimed Band of Brothers.
Cooper currently resides in London.
With her notable roles in film and television, AMANDA SEYFRIED (Sophie) has quickly captured the attention of audiences and established herself as a breakout star.
Seyfried is currently in production on the Fox Atomic film Jennifer's Body, written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and directed by Karyn Kusama. Seyfried will star as Needy, who is best friends with Jennifer (Megan Fox), a possessed cheerleader who turns into a killer.
Most recently, Seyfried has received critical praise for her starring role in HBO's Golden Globe Award-nominated drama Big Love. She stars as Sarah Henrickson, the eldest teenage daughter of Bill (Bill Paxton) and Barb Hendrickson (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who struggles with growing up in a polygamist family. Big Love is returning for its third season in 2008.
The Pennsylvania native started her career with modeling at the age of 11. Seyfried soon turned to acting and landed her first contract role as Lucy Montgomery on As the World Turns in 2000. In 2002, All My Children signed her to the contract role of Joni Stafford.
Seyfried's television credits include a heart-wrenching performance of a rape victim in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; a role as the girlfriend of an ill young man in House; Justice, in which she played a young woman who accidentally kills an older man whom she'd been dating and is successfully defended by Victor Garber's character; and a role in the Veronica Mars pilot.
Her breakthrough role was in Mean Girls, the Lorne Michaels-Tina Fey-Paramount Pictures hit in the spring of 2004, in which Seyfried co-starred with Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. They won the Best On-Screen Team Award at the MTV Movie Awards that year.
In 2005, she starred in Nine Lives, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim. Written and directed by Rodrigo García, the film also starred Sissy Spacek, Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Robin Wright Penn and Dakota Fanning.
In 2006, Seyfried appeared in Alpha Dog, directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Justin Timberlake, Sharon Stone, Emile Hirsch and Bruce Willis. Also in 2006, she starred in American Gun with Donald Sutherland, Forest Whitaker and Marcia Gay Harden.
Seyfried currently divides her time between Los Angeles and New York.
One of the entertainment industry's most honored actresses, CHRISTINE BARANSKI (Tanya) has achieved acclaim in every medium in which she has performed. The two-time Tony, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild and American Comedy award winner recently starred opposite Ray Romano in Welcome to Mooseport and opposite Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere in the Academy Award®-winning film Chicago. Other film credits include The Guru, opposite Heather Graham and Marisa Tomei; the box-office hit Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Bowfinger, opposite Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy; the wildly controversial Bulworth, opposite Warren Beatty; and Cruel Intentions, opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon.
A native of Buffalo, Baranski developed a passion for acting while performing in high-school productions and read about Juilliard's acting program, which was only a year old at the time. After graduating from Juilliard, she began earning roles in regional productions and off-Broadway. She received her big break when she was cast in Tom Stoppard's hit Broadway comedy The Real Thing, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons. In that same year, she also married, gave birth to her first child and won a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for her performance.
Baranski went on to earn a second Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for her performance as a chain-smoking hyperkinetic in Neil Simon's Rumors, and a Drama Desk Award for Lips Together, Teeth Apart, in a role that was written for her by Terrence McNally. Additional appearances on the Great White Way include Hurlyburly and The House of Blue Leaves.
Baranski co-starred with Nathan Lane and Robin Williams in the box-office smash The Birdcage, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award. She also costarred in Jeffrey, the film based on Paul Rudnick's acclaimed off-Broadway play about gay life in the age of AIDS. Past roles include the memorable mistress of Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune and parts in Legal Eagles, The Ref, Lovesick, Addams Family Values, Life With Mikey and 9½ Weeks.
In addition to an Emmy Award for the hit CBS comedy Cybill, Baranski received an American Comedy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy, as well a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy. She also received three additional Emmy and three Golden Globe award nominations. Baranski also starred with John Larroquette on the NBC sitcom Happy Family.
In addition to her films, Baranski was seen in the Los Angeles production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She was also seen as a guest on Frasier, for which she received a fifth Emmy Award nomination.
Baranski divides her time between Connecticut and Los Angeles.


ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
One of Britain's most in-demand theater and opera directors, PHYLLIDA LLOYD (Directed by) staged the smash-hit musical Mamma Mia!, which, after almost a decade, continues to play to sold-out houses on Broadway, in London's West End and around the world.
Lloyd has directed notable productions of plays at leading theaters, including The Duchess of Malfi, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Pericles, The Way of the World, What the Butler Saw (Royal National Theatre), The Virtuoso, Artists and Admirers (Royal Shakespeare Company), Six Degrees of Separation, Hysteria, Wild East (Royal Court), The Threepenny Opera, Boston Marriage, Mary Stuart (Donmar Warehouse), The Winter's Tale, Death and the King's Horseman, Medea, The School for Scandal (Royal Exchange Theatre Company, Manchester), The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare's Globe Theatre), The Comedy of Errors, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dona Rosita the Spinster and Oliver Twist (Bristol Old Vic).
For Opera North, she directed productions of L'Etoile, La Bohème, Medea, Carmen, Albert Herring, Peter Grimes (winner of the South Bank Opera Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award and a nominee for the Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production) and Gloriana, which she filmed for BBC television, and for which she won an International Emmy.
Other opera work includes Macbeth (Opéra National de Paris and Royal Opera House, London), The Carmelites, Verdi's Requiem and Wagner's Ring Cycle (English National Opera, Welsh National Opera) and The Handmaid's Tale (The Royal Danish Opera, English National Opera, Canadian Opera).
Her production of Schiller's Mary Stuart with Janet McTeer opens on Broadway in 2009.
CATHERINE JOHNSON (Screenplay by) is the award-winning British writer of the global smash Mamma Mia!, who has adapted the show for the screen. She is currently working on a commission for The National Theatre.
Johnson's writing career began in 1987 when her first play, Rag Doll, won the inaugural Bristol Old Vic/HTV Playwrighting Award. Her next play, Boys Mean Business, won her the Pearson Writer in Residency at The Bush Theatre, London, and she subsequently won the Pearson Award for Best New Play for Dead Sheep.
For the next decade, Johnson continued to work extensively in theater with plays such as Too Much Too Young (Bristol Old Vic and London Bubble) and Shang-A-Lang (The Bush Theatre and national tour), as well as writing the television film Sin Bin, creating the series Love in the 21st Century for Channel 4 and working on the long-running dramas Casualty and Love Hurts.
In 1997, producer Judy Craymer approached Johnson to create a new musical from the existing songs of ABBA. Mamma Mia! opened in the West End in April 1999 and has kept Johnson busy ever since, overseeing translations for the several foreign productions and revamping the text for North America and Australia.
Mamma Mia! was nominated for the Olivier Awards in London, followed by several Tony nominations on Broadway, including Best Book of a Musical.
Her most recent successes have been the stage play Little Baby Nothing (The Bush Theatre) and a book and lyrics for Through the Wire, a musical for young people (National Theatre Connections, Myrtle Theatre).
Johnson is deeply committed to encouraging new writing through her position as a patron of Myrtle Theatre (Bristol) and The Bush Theatre. She is also a panelist for the Pearson's new writing bursaries and now sponsors their Best Play Award.
Johnson has two children, Huw and Myfi, and lives in Bristol with her husband, Michael.
One of the leading theatrical producers in the world today, JUDY CRAYMER (Produced by) is the global producer of Mamma Mia!, the smash-hit stage musical, which has been seen nightly by more than 30 million people worldwide and has grossed more than $2 billion at the box office.
Craymer formed Littlestar Services in 1997 to produce Mamma Mia! with ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with whom she had previously collaborated as executive producer for the London production of the musical Chess. The original production of Mamma Mia! opened in London's West End two years later, and the Broadway company followed in 2001. Both productions, as well as the international companies, continue to play to packed houses.
Also active in the worlds of film and television, Craymer was a producer for Tiger Aspect Productions and Primetime Television in the late 1980s. Feature films she worked on include Michael Radford's White Mischief and John Schlesinger's Madame Sousatzka.
Recently, Craymer was executive producer of two popular ABBA television documentaries, ABBA: The Winner Takes It All and ABBA: Super Troupers: A Celebratory Film From Waterloo to MAMMA MIA!, which have been broadcast
worldwide and are DVD best sellers. She is also the co-author of the book Mamma Mia! How Can I Resist You?: The Inside Story of Mamma Mia! and the Songs of ABBA.
Upon graduating from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Craymer spent four years as a stage manager on various productions, including working as one of the original stage managers on Cats in the West End.
In recognition for her remarkable contribution to the performing arts and music, Craymer was presented with The Woman of the Year Award in 2002. She has been listed in the top 10 of both Management Today's "Top Entrepreneur in Britain," and by Real Business in its "Top 50 Women of 2005." In early 2007, Forbes listed Craymer as one of the "Top 10 Tastemakers in the Performing Arts." For the past two years, Littlestar Services has been featured in The Sunday Times' Fast Track ranking of "Britain's Fastest Growing Companies."
Judy Craymer was recently made a fellow of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and in the Queen's birthday honors list of 2007, she was honored with an MBE for her contribution to the music industry.
Producing credits for GARY GOETZMAN (Produced by) include Charlie Wilson's War; The Polar Express; My Big Fat Greek Wedding; The Ant Bully; Beloved; That Thing You Do!; The Silence of the Lambs (winner of five Academy Awards®, including Best Picture); Philadelphia; Devil in a Blue Dress; Miami Blues; Starter for 10; Modern Girls; Amos & Andrew; Storefront Hitchcock; the IMAX film Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D; the acclaimed HBO miniseries John Adams, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney; the twice Golden Globe-nominated television series Big Love; and the Emmy-and Golden Globe-winning miniseries Band of Brothers.
He also produced Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense; Neil Young: Heart of Gold; Neil Young's long-form video The Complex Sessions; and music videos for Bruce Springsteen, Suzanne Vega, David Byrne, as well as Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall in Love," which he also directed.
Goetzman is currently producing Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze's feature adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved book; The Great Buck Howard, starring John Malkovich and Colin Hanks; City of Ember, starring Bill Murray and Saoirse Ronan; and the 10-part HBO miniseries The Pacific.
In 1998, Goetzman and Tom Hanks teamed up to form Playtone, a film, television and music producing company.
BENNY ANDERSSON (Executive Producer/Music and Lyrics by): Composer. Professor. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Leader of the 16-piece Benny Andersson's Orchestra. Grandfather of five.
BJÖRN ULVAEUS (Executive Producer/Music and Lyrics by) was born in 1945 in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. After a successful local career in Sweden with a folk group in the mid 1960s, he started his collaboration with Benny Andersson. They then went on to form ABBA with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
Even during the ABBA years, the idea of writing a musical seemed appealing and, in 1981, Ulvaeus and Andersson met Tim Rice and co-wrote Chess with him, which opened in the West End in 1986.
In 1995, Ulvaeus and Andersson opened a new musical called Kristina från Duvemåla, which played for three years in Sweden.
In February 2002, the Swedish version of Chess opened in Stockholm.
Actor/Producer RITA WILSON (Executive Producer) first donned her producer's cap for the record-breaking box-office hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Wilson was the driving force behind bringing Nia Vardalos' semiautobiographical story to the screen with Vardalos as the lead. Wilson was honored with the Visionary Award from the Producers Guild of America, and the film won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Comedy, as well as receiving Golden Globe Award and Oscar® nominations. Wilson recently reteamed with Nia Vardalos as executive producer for the 2008 film My Life in Ruins.
As an actor, Wilson recently completed Old Dogs with John Travolta and Robin Williams, and starred in Beautiful Ohio with William Hurt. Some of her other film credits include The Chumscrubber, with Ralph Fiennes; Raise Your Voice, with Hilary Duff; Auto Focus, with Greg Kinnear; The Story of Us, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Bruce Willis; Runaway Bride, with Richard Gere; Gus Van Sant's Psycho; and Nora Ephron's Mixed Nuts, with Steve Martin and Sleepless in Seattle, in which she captured the hearts of film audiences everywhere with her now classic crying scene.
On stage, Wilson recently starred in the world premiere of Lisa Loomer's Distracted, directed by Leonard Foglia at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She also starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Dinner With Friends in Los Angeles and Boston, directed by Dan Sullivan. In 2006, she made a personal dream come true and made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago, the musical. Wilson works with the Shakespeare Festival/LA, a charity that provides free Shakespeare to the citizens of Los Angeles, as well as providing educational programs for youths in the community.
On television, Wilson has foiled Larry David in "The Doll" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, has been girlfriend and mother to Kelsey Grammer's Frasier and co-starred as Susan Borman in HBO's Emmy Award-winning miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. Wilson has The Brady Bunch to thank for her first professional acting job.
In 2007, Wilson made her directorial debut for Glamour magazine's "Reel Moments." The Trap, starring Jeanne Tripplehorn and Channing Tatum, also includes the song "Lessons Learned" by Grammy Award-winning songwriter Diane Warren, and is performed by Wilson.
Wilson has been a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar since 2006 and has also written for O, The Oprah magazine, where readers have followed her thoughts on varying subjects from fashion to family.
TOM HANKS (Executive Producer) holds the distinction of being the first actor in 50 years to be awarded back-to-back Best Actor Academy Awards®: in 1994 as the AIDS-stricken lawyer in Philadelphia and the following year in Forrest Gump. He also won Golden Globes for both of these performances, along with his work in Big and Cast Away.
Born and raised in Oakland, California, Hanks became interested in acting during high school. He attended Chabot College in Hayward, California, and the California State University in Sacramento. At the invitation of artistic director Vincent Dowling, he made his professional debut portraying Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. He performed in that company for three seasons.
Moving to New York City in 1978, Hanks performed with the Riverside Shakespeare Company until getting a big break when he was teamed with Peter Scolari in the ABC television comedy series Bosom Buddies. This led to starring roles in Ron Howard's Splash, Bachelor Party, Volunteers, The Money Pit and Nothing in Common. In 1988, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association recognized his performances in both Big and Punchline, bestowing on Hanks their Best Actor Award.
Roles followed in films such as A League of Their Own and Sleepless in Seattle.
In 1996, Hanks made his feature film writing and directing debut with That Thing You Do! The film's title song not only reached the top 10 in many contemporary music charts but was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Original Song.
After reteaming with Ron Howard in Apollo 13, Hanks served as an executive producer, writer, director and actor for HBO's From the Earth to the Moon-an Emmywinning 12-hour dramatic film anthology that explored the entire Apollo space program.
In 1998, Hanks starred in Steven Spielberg's war drama Saving Private Ryan, for which he received his fourth Oscar® nomination. The following year he starred in The Green Mile, which was written and directed by Frank Darabont and is based on the six-part serialized novel by Stephen King.
In 2000, Hanks reunited with director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. in Cast Away, for which he received yet another Oscar® nomination.
In 2000, he served again with Steven Spielberg as executive producer, writer and director for another epic HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, based on S