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Unpdated on March 4th, 2009
The official ABBA website has been changed, still remaining under the same URL, but with different contents and layout. You can check it out at www.abbasite.com
Actor Dominic Cooper expressed his views on a possible Mamma Mia sequel during the Oscars night. When asked about it, he replied "We're in negotiations," before waving off that idea. "No, I have no idea. I keep hearing rumors." However he is up for a second film: "I'm hoping that I'll be placed on a Greek island very soon and singing ABBA again".
You can read the original article on moviesblog.mtv.com
In an interview published in The Times, Catherine Johnson, the writer of Mamma Mia, talked about the success of her musical, her love about ABBA music as well as about her new musical entitled "Suspension". Some extracts from the interview follow.
By Andrew Billen
In a preface to one of Catherine Johnson's lesser-known plays - and next to her Abba musical Mamma Mia! they are all lesser known - she writes encouragingly to future performers: “Don't be put off by the songs. Enthusiasm, energy and the ability to hit the right notes are more important than West End performances.” Sitting in the big house that Mamma Mia! bought, Johnson grins.
“You are going to ask me was that my note to Pierce Brosnan, aren't you! But the thing is, he can actually sing. Close your eyes and he is not off-key at all. I think the trouble is that people are looking at his face and thinking, 'Ah, it's Pierce Brosnan looking awkward'. But he is acting.”
[...]
But if you book for Suspension believing Mamma Mia! to be the sort of ironically life-affirming nonsense that Johnson normally writes you will be in for a shock. Her new play features an estranged father communicating with his daughter on her wedding day via a banner precariously unfurled from Clifton suspension bridge. It is a comedy but a very dark one - like many of her plays, including Through the Wire, a musical about a juvenile detention centre where her “note not for Brosnan” appears.
“Partly, I think, Suspension is a riposte to Mamma Mia!” she says. “OK, let's not have a feelgood ending that says it's great not to know who your dad is, and three guys turn up and one looks like Pierce Brosnan and another like Colin Firth. Suspension is more about what it would really be like.”
Johnson claims to be nearer to Rosie, the carefree Julie Walters character in Mamma Mia! The Movie, than to its central figure, the unmarried mother Donna, yet when it comes to dysfunctional families she knows what she is writing about. After an early divorce from a warehouseman called Ted, she broke up with the father of her two children, Huw and Myfi, in her thirties.
About ABBA, Catherine Johnson says: “They wear their hearts on their sleeves. That is what attracted me to their songs. The words are quite raw, in fantastic contrast to the tunes. Why do their songs return to the theme of things that have not gone quite right when on the surface everything has for them? Maybe it is just some existential despair we all carry with us.”
About the idea of Mamma Mia she adds: “When my agent told me I’d been asked to do it, my first thought was I can’t wait to tell the girls at my aerobics group. We always played Abba there.”
You can read the original article on timesonline.co.uk
Although Mamma Mia had no Oscar nominations, it was featured during the 81st Academy Awards during the "Musical Is Back" medley. Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper joined Beyonce, Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and others to sing and dance to ABBA hit Mamma Mia! You can watch the clip on youtube (the Mamma Mia part is roughly after the third minute).
Apart from the Razzie award we informed you about, Mamma Mia has also won a Golden Reel award for best sound editing in the category "Best Music in a Musical Feature Film". You can see the original article as well as the complete list of winners at hollywoodreporter.com.
Sometimes, it is better for the winner not to take it all. Pierce Brosnan won a Razzie award as worst supporting actor for his appearance in Mamma Mia! The Movie. The four other "claimers" of the prize in the same category were Ben Kingsley, Uwe Boll, Burt Reynolds and Verne Troyer. Below you can see the list of all the winners of the 29th annual Razzies:
In his article, published in Newsmill, a Swedish website, Bjorn Ulvaeus directly attacks illegal music downloads and those who support it. He accused people that get copyrighted material for free of being "lazy and stingy", claiming that today's stolen work was once "one single person's idea". Bjorn's outburst was caused mostly after the last decisions about the Pirate Bay case: Pirate Bay, a bittorent tracking website, was formerly accused for "assisting copyright infringement" and "assisting making available copyright material", the former charge of which was dropped by the Swedish prosecutors this week. Although no copyrighted material is held on the Pirate Bay website, it provides torrent links to sources where movies, music and other copyrighted material can be downloaded.
Below follows Bjorn's article (Translation from Swedish to English is from an online translator, so, despite out great effort, expect minor semantic errors):
By Bjorn Ulvaeus:
In relation to the Pirate Bay trial, we hear every day their representatives solemnly and with trembling voice talking about their "freedom" on the Internet. Behind the wounded innocent sobbing lies a very gross idea: It is easier and cheaper to steal than to download legally.
This is the "freedom" to be lazy and mean, that is. They talk carelessly about the media industry as an anonymous whooper, painting an enemy that is suitable for the purpose.
But what you steal started once as an idea of a man, a small man. They don't want to talk about that. It works much better with the giant Glufsglufs, who plundered from the small hunt pirates' expense. It is the latter that will appear as small and defenseless, not the author.
[...]
Is it so fucking hard to understand? Let us, for a while, forget the complexity of the problem and whether the suggested legislation is appropriate or not, and set the question: Is it so damn difficult to pay for it?
More:
The soundtrack for Mamma Mia! The Movie was announced as the third best-selling album worldwide for 2008. The CD that features the most popular ABBA songs performed by cinema stars such as, Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan and others, made it's way to the third position, just behind Coldplay's "Viva la Vida or Death and His Friends" and AC/DC's "Black Ice".
The top ten albums for 2008:
Pierce Brosnan has received a nomination for his singing performance in Mamma Mia in the category of Worst Supporting Actor. The other for nominees in the same category are Ben Gingsley ("The Love Guru"), Burt Reynolds ("Deal"/"In The Name Of The king"), Verne Troyer ("The Love Guru"/ "Uwe Boll's Postal") and Uwe Boll ("Uwe Boll's Postal"). The winners of the 29th annual Razzie Awards will be announced on Saturday, February 21st. You can see the complete list of nominations at the official Razzies website.
Mamma Mia lost the Grammy soundtrack award that went to teenage movie "Juno". The movie director Jason Reitman accepted the award expressing his surprize: "I think we stole ABBA and Jay-Z's award", he joked, referring to co-nominees "Mamma Mia!" and "American Gangster. "I wouldn't be surprised if they beat us up on the way out".
Following the disappointment of the Golden Globes and the Oscars (Mamma Mia has no Oscar nominations), Mamma Mia! The Movie didn't manage to win one of the three awards it was nominated for. The award for the Outstanding British Film went to "Man On Wire", while the Best Music award to "Slumdog Millionaire". Finally, the Carl Foreman Award was gained by Steve McQueen, director/writer of "Hunger", leaving Judy Craymer and Mamma Mia awardless. You can view all the winners at the official BAFTA website.