Baz Bamigboye on a possible Mamma Mia sequel, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio and much more
A second helping of red hot Mamma Mia!
The name of the game is that the movie Mamma Mia! has taken so much money, money, money (so much, in fact, that you have to say it three times) that a sequel would be like honey, honey.A Hollywood studio chief who has seen the film take more than half a billion dollars worldwide told me 'it makes sense' to explore the possibility of making a follow-up picture, which would have to star Meryl Streep and fellow cast members such as Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters and Colin Firth.
It would take some time to put together, so perhaps the new film project could be called Grandmamma Mia.
Mia Mia Mia: Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep and Julie Walters
Top executive David Linde, cochairman of Universal Pictures, the
studio behind the movie, told me he would be delighted if Judy Craymer,
the force behind the stage show and the film, writer Catherine Johnson
and director Phyllida Lloyd could be persuaded to develop a storyline
for a sequel. Abba song writers Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus would
also have to agree to the project. 'There are plenty of songs left,' Linde said cheerfully. But as Ms Craymer observed when I contacted her: 'It's something that'll take quite a lot of time and thought.
'What's more, we haven't even discussed it among ourselves. It's something exciting to think about - and something that you'd need to be passionate about. You couldn't rush into it.'
She's right because here's the thing: Mamma Mia! looks deceptively easy on both stage and screen, but the whole thing has been carefully structured with strong underpinning, and each song carefully chosen.
As a thank-you, following the success of the film, Universal have given the three creative women behind Mamma Mia! - Craymer, Johnson and Lloyd - the gift of holidays, anywhere in the world. A perfect set up to consider a sequel?
Some critics were very snooty about the movie, missing the point entirely. Colin Firth, who played one of the film's 'dads', put his finger on it when he said that the secret of the film's success was that, with its Greek island setting, it was like a 'virtual holiday' - about the only kind many of us will be able to afford soon.
Mamma Mia! has done particularly well in the UK and is within striking distance of supplanting Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone as the second-highest grossing film in the UK. (The DVD will be released on November 24.)
Some even think that third-placed Mamma Mia!, which has UK takings of more than £65 million (and that doesn't include soundtrack and T-shirt sales) could eventually displace No 1 Brit film Titanic, which took £69 million in the UK after its release in 1997.
How the Titanic twosome turned into sad suburbans
The last time Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio worked together, on Titanic, Kate got to go to the Academy Awards while her leading man was snubbed by Academy voters.This time, I predict both will be attending.
Their performances in Revolutionary Road, based on Richard Yates's American classic, are surefire Oscar candidates, judging by what I've seen from some footage I sneaked a look at.
Strictly suburban:Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
In the movie, directed by Sam Mendes, they play a married couple who feel trapped by the idea of postwar conformity.
Leonardo's character, Frank Wheeler, who works in Manhattan for an early computer company, says he 'wants to feel life'.
But watching him, as he goes through the motions, you know he's not feeling the kind of life he wanted - nor is his wife April (played by Kate).
Kate's going to have a busy few months promoting Revolutionary Road and the Stephen Daldry film The Reader. She achieves greatness in both, but I can say no more till I get to see the 'official' versions of both films, which are going to be much talked about.
By the way, Kate won't be portraying John Lennon's mother in Sam Taylor Wood's film Nowhere Boy and, contrary to reports, she will not be starring in a picture about Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer.
Indeed, she has never read a script about it, nor had conversations with anyone connected with it.
Ken takes it to the Bridge
Ken Stott will play Eddie Carbone in A view From the Bridge
The play will come into the Duke of York's Theatre from January 24 following on from Harold Pinter's No Man's Land starring Michael Gambon.
I mention Gambon on purpose, because the first time I saw A View From The Bridge was when Gambon painted a vivid portrait of Eddie in a National Theatre production in 1987. I've been fascinated by the play ever since.
Miller's Eddie is a married dock worker improperly infatuated with his niece. As Kim Poster, who is producing the play with Sonia Friedman, noted: 'You have the flawed hero: a very moral, decent man who isn't able to grasp that he's doing something wrong.'
There's such a poigancy in Eddie's actions. I saw a version in New York a few years back with Anthony LaPaglia, but Gambon has stayed with me.
Lindsay Posner will direct Stott, and with him being such a powerhouse actor I know there's going to be dynamite on the Duke of York's stage. Metaphorically, I hasten to add!
Stott was last in the West End in The God Of Carnage, and many know him as TV's Rebus. Other casting is being done now, but the acclaimed designer Christopher Oram has just joined the production.
21st-century Holmes in 22b Baker Street
Rising star: Bendict Cumberbatch is set to play a contemporary Sherlock Holmes
Holmes will actually be a contemporary detective, not some sort of time traveller.
Steve Moffat, who works on the Dr Who dramas, has written an hour-long pilot episode with Mark Gatiss.
If senior executives at the BBC like what they see, a series will be commissioned.
Cumberbatch is one of the country's fastest-rising young actors and was seen last year in Joe Wright's film Atonement, Starter For Ten and plays at the Royal Court.
He also starred in the splendid TV productions To The Ends Of The Earth and Stuart: A Life Backwards. It's not yet known whether any of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories will be updated, although some of them are very much set in time and place.
Also, I wonder how many detectives inject themselves with cocaine and morphine as the Victorian-era Holmes did? Another thing, if he resides on present-day Baker street, how can he afford it?
Make a date to catch Lynda & co
Leading ladies Lynda Bellingham and Patricia Hodge will be stripping off in the West End to help raise thousands of pounds for charity.The actresses, along with fellow cast members Sian Phillips, Gaynor Faye, Elaine C. Smith and others, are the stars of Calendar Girls, the stage show based on the true story of members of the Rylstone and District Women's Institute who produced a nude version of the local WI calendar to raise money for charity.
For weeks the show has been playing to packed houses on a UK tour. Now it's coming into London's Noel Coward Theatre, where it will run from April 4.
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