Abba Musical Mamma Mia To Become Godawful Film

You're sensible people; you share our opinions on musicals, don't you? That's the opinion that most normal people can think of a million better ways to spend their time than by watching a lightweight 20-minute story padded out by rubbish idiots shouting crap songs.

One of the worst offending musicals is Mamma Mia, a dire show based around the musical output of grinning Swedish Eurovision gonks Abba. And now it's being reported that Mamma Mia is going to be turned into a proper film. We can hardly contain our excitement.

The stage musical version of Mamma Mia is phenomenally successful. It's been running for 10 years, has made £897 million and 24 million people have been to see it. And yet Mamma Mia is responsible for some of the most heinous events of the last decade. The Queen musical. The Rod Stewart musical. The Madness musical. The way that people like Abba in a non-ironic way these days. We haven't managed to blame Mamma Mia for the way studio audiences clap along to music on Saturday evening TV shows yet, but we're on the case.

And if there's one thing worse than going to see a musical in a theatre, it's going to see a musical at a cinema. Years of being subjected to Grease and, worse, the Phantom Of The Opera movie have ensured this. So the news that Mamma Mia will be turned into a film has left us shivering and confused.

According to the BBC, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from Abba will produce Mamma Mia: The Movie along with Starbucks fan Tom Hanks. Playtone, Tom Hanks' production company, is in talks with Universal to find finance and distribution for Mamma Mia. Judy Craymer, who devised Mamma Mia, is already thinking of stars to take the show to the big screen:

"We've never had stars in the show, the music has always been the star, but we are certainly thinking about names as we take this from the stage to the screen." 

The Mamma Mia movie is being scheduled for a late 2007 release. Start running now, while you still can.

Read more:

Abba stage show 'to become film' - BBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]