Meryl Streep - Donna
Pierce Brosnan - Sam Carmichael
Amanda Seyfried - Sophie
Colin Firth - Harry Bright
Stellan Skarsgard - Bill
Christine Baranski - Tanya
Julie Walters - Rosie
Dominic Cooper - Sky

UK - 1 July 2008 (London) (premiere)
Greece - 3 July 2008
UK - 4 July 2008 (limited)
Australia  - 10 July 2008
UK - 11 July 2008
USA - 16 July 2008 (New York City, New York) (premiere)
USA - 18 July 2008

For more release dates see IMDB

"Due to overwhelming demand, Universal Pictures announced today that it will release a special sing-along edition of its worldwide smash hit movie musical "Mamma Mia!" in selected theaters nationwide, starting Friday, August 29, for a limited time. The movie phenomenon, based on the songs of iconic supergroup ABBA, has earned more than $320 million at the worldwide box office.

Audiences at these specially selected theaters are invited to bring friends and family to experience the smash hit movie musical in a whole new way by singing along to the songs they love. "Mamma Mia!: The Sing-Along Edition" will feature the lyrics to every musical number on the screen, and you are invited to sing and dance along. Join in on all your familiar favorites like "Dancing Queen," "S.O.S.," "Money, Money, Money," "Take a Chance on Me," "Lay All Your Love on Me," "Voulez-Vous" and all the others from the film!"

Read more here.

Read about the London premiere at guardian.co.uk. It includes a video with clips from the movie and comments from the stars.

"Hundreds of fans laid all their love on the movie's stars - including Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgård - as they walked the azur blue carpet, a reference to the movie's mediterranean setting."

Check out some great photos from the London premiere at Yahoo.

ET Talks With The Cast At the New York Premiere

The video includes comments from Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, and Amanda Seyfried as they attend the US premiere of Mamma Mia at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York.

The clip also includes comments from Rita Wilson who, along with her husband Tom Hanks, is an executive producer of the film.

***Get the latest box office numbers for Mamma Mia! at Box Office Mojo.

ABBA Saves NBC's Bacon (Wired.com)
"The movie meant, as the Swedish poppers once sang, "Money, Money, Money." Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan helped the film suck in $500 million worldwide, increasing NBC Universal's film division profit by 40 percent."

"No matter how many blockbusters there are, Universal Pictures' screen version of the global hit stage musical "Mamma Mia!" is the most fun to be had at the movies this or any other recent summer."(Hollywood Reporter)

"Is there anything Meryl Streep can't do?
Mamma Mia! (*** out of four) is worth the ticket price just to see her belt it out, jump up and down on a bed, dance in platform shoes and slide down a banister. She not only can carry a tune, but her version of the overwrought The Winner Takes It All is surprisingly moving. Her chemistry with co-star Pierce Brosnan is palpable. Streep and the rest of the cast appear to be having the time of their lives."(USA Today)

""Mamma Mia!" is a feel-good musical experience, plain and simple. The actors display a buoyant commitment to the material (Firth has seldom been this deadpan-funny), and the songs, of course, remain undeniable wonders. Will the movie make a mint? Almost certainly. Is it worth your 10 bucks? Hey - what's the price of pure happiness these days?"(MTV.com)

"They'll probably revoke my membership of the Straight Men's Sneering Association for this, but Mamma Mia! is actually rather wonderful. It is sharp, hilarious and so beautifully shot that you can almost smell the Ambre Solaire."(Times Online UK)

"If this review sounds like a love letter to "Mamma Mia", it's because it is - I can't remember the last time I was in a movie where the audience were clapping, cheering & singing along during the whole film - when an audience stays through the entire closing credits and then gives it a standing ovation - it's something special, and that's the way to best describe "Mamma Mia" - something special."(Moviehole.net)

"The theatrical formula might not have translated to celluloid, given that neither Craymer, Lloyd nor Johnson have ever had any film experience. Yet it's the strength and infectious zeal of the cast that shines through and ticks all the boxes and more. The film should reach more than just the fortysomething demographics who flocked to see it on the boards. Incredibly, Mamma Mia! looks set for a whole new lease on life."(Boxoffice.com)

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Check out Mamma Mia at Rotten Tomatoes. The Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics.
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Watch the Ebert & Roeper review of Mamma Mia!

"I Have A Dream" (Amanda Seyfried)

"Honey, Honey" (Amanda Seyfried)

"Money, Money, Money" (Meryl Streep)

"Mamma Mia" (Meryl Streep)

"Chiquitita" (Julie Walters and Christine Baranski)

"Super Trouper" (Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski)

"Dancing Queen" (Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, and Meryl Streep)

"Our Last Summer" (Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård and Colin Firth)

"Lay All Your Love On Me" (Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper)

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" (Amanda Seyfried, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth and Dominic Cooper)

"The Name Of The Game" (Amanda Seyfried and Stellan Skarsgård)

"Voulez-Vous" (Amanda Seyfried, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth and Dominic Cooper)

"SOS" (Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan)

"Does Your Mother Know" (Christine Baranski and Philip Michael)

"Slipping Through My Fingers" (Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep)

"The Winner Takes It All" (Meryl Streep)

"I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" (Amanda Seyfried, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth and Dominic Cooper)

"When All Is Said And Done" (Amanda Seyfried, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth and Dominic Cooper)

"Take A Chance On Me" (Julie Walters and Stellan Skarsgård)

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(For more information about the songs in the movie see: IMDB)

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The songs 'Under Attack', 'One of Us' and 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' were not in the movie.

The song 'The Name of the Game' was filmed for the movie but removed from the final cut. (It is on the soundtrack album, however.)

'Thank You for the Music' is not part of the film's narrative as it is in on stage but instead placed over the closing credits.

The song 'When All is Said and Done' is in the movie but was never part of the stage show.

(Ref. Mamma Mia! Trivia at IMDB)

"Chiquitita" and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" from the movie are not on the soundtrack CD. Also, on the CD "Thank you for the music" is a hidden track that plays after "I Have a Dream" (track 17).

The official ABBA website includes an alphabetical listing of all of their songs with lyrics, original recording date, lead vocalist, etc. However, for the songs in the movie, some of the lyrics were changed to fit the Mamma Mia story.

ABBA Song Listing

Mamma Mia is up for favorite soundtrack album. Cast your vote here!
(Voting closes November 7, 2008)

The Mamma Mia! movie soundtrack is certified platinum after selling more than 1 million copies! (One of those million is me. Yay!)

It was also certified gold for selling more than 500,000 copies.

(Ref. Billboard.com)

'Mamma Mia!' Leaps To No. 1 On The Billboard 200 (Billboard.com)
"It took five weeks, but the ABBA-driven soundtrack to "Mamma Mia!" has ascended to the summit of The Billboard 200 for the first time. Moving 130,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, the Decca effort climbs 3-1 and becomes the second soundtrack this year to take No. 1, behind Rhino's "Juno" soundtrack in January."

ABBA songs are back on charts (Los Angeles Times)
"The soundtrack album has jumped into the Top 10 of the national sales chart even without a movie audience primed to lap it up: It sold 48,000 copies and enters at No. 7."

There has been a lot of discussion on Pierce Brosnan's singing in Mamma Mia, much of it negative. Now perhaps I am biased, since I am a big Pierce Brosnan fan, but I have tried to listen as objectively as possible. Obviously, Pierce will not be making a change of careers anytime soon. (Although this is not his first time singing in a movie. He sang a couple of Irish folk tunes in the 2002 movie Evelyn). However, he is really not that bad. And, he has clearly satisfied the creators of the music.

Benny Andersson of ABBA said the following in an article in The Sun:

"Everybody complains that Pierce can't sing and it p***** me off," he says. "I think he has a great voice. He couldn't sing Nessun Dorma but neither could I - and I was in ABBA.

"It's like saying BOB DYLAN can't sing. It's just not fair. He has a good voice."

The point was clearly to create a different interpretation of the music that fit the movie and the cast. This was not intended to be a replication of the stage production or ABBA's performance of the music. Would you prefer that they cast someone that was a great singer, but couldn't act?

So lay off Pierce and let him do his thing :-).

Pierce Brosnan talks about Mamma Mia on the Today Show (Video)

The video includes a clip of him singing S.O.S.

Meryl Streep talks about Mamma Mia on the Today Show (Video)

The video includes a clip of her singing The Winner Takes it All.

Mamma Mia! Video Clips at IMDB

Clips include trailers, interviews, behind the scenes videos, brief clips from the movie of "Take A Chance On Me", "Slipping Through My Fingers", "Lay All Your Love On Me", "Chiquitita", "Honey, Honey", "Dancing Queen", and Mamma Mia".

The picture was filmed in several different locations in the Greek Islands of Skopelos and Skiathos and Damouchari (a seaside hamlet in the nearby Pelion peninsula of central Greece). Filming on Skiathos island began August 29 to 30 in the harbor, and in the bell tower for the wedding from August 30 to September 3. Filming on Skopelos island began on September 3rd and wrapped at the end of September. Locations in Skopelos included Agios Iannis tou Kastri, Kastani Beach and Agnondas.

Production offices for the film were based at Pinewood Studios and although the film is set on a Greek island, much was filmed on the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios where lighting and temperature could be controlled.

(Ref. Mamma Mia! (film) at Wikipedia)

Who is the guy that Tanya (Christine Baranski) sings "Does Your Mother Know" to on the beach?

Well, the character's name is Pepper and he is played by an up and coming actor named Philip Michael from London.  See IMDB for more about Philip Michael. You can also find him at Model Mayhem.

Watch a clip of "Does Your Mother Know" at MSN.

The Official Mamma Mia! Movie Website

Mamma Mia! Fans Community Site

Mamma Mia! at IMDB

Mamma Mia! at Box Office Mojo

Mamma Mia! Stage Show Site

The Official ABBA Website

Mamma Mia! The Movie at ABBAMAIL

Mamma Mia!: Trailers and Clips at Yahoo (16 videos)

'Mamma Mia' - Behind the Scenes Video
(at Moviefone.com)
Includes clips from the movie and comments from the stars.

Mamma Mia! - The Movie - In Focus
(From ABBAsite.com)
The background story of the movie, with exclusive comments from ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, as well as screen writer Catherine Johnson.

'Mamma Mia!' - Could Meryl Streep make Golden Globe history?
(LA Times)
"Proving she can indeed do it all, star Meryl Streep is the clear favorite to win a record seventh Golden Globe, says Paul Sheehan, my colleague here at The Envelope. A certifiable Broadway and kudos nut, Paul reminds us all that Streep is even more beloved at the Globes than she is at the Oscars."

"Mamma Mia!" soars to top of UK box office (Reuters)
"Abba-themed musical "Mamma Mia!" topped the British box office after its opening three days, knocking Will Smith off the No.1 spot after just a week, according to Screen International on Tuesday."

Abba stars Benny and Bjorn talk about the new Mamma Mia! film
(The Sun)
"Everybody complains that Pierce can't sing and it p***** me off," he says. "I think he has a great voice. He couldn't sing Nessun Dorma but neither could I - and I was in ABBA.

"It's like saying BOB DYLAN can't sing. It's just not fair. He has a good voice."

Brosnan 'Scared' to Sing in 'Mamma Mia!' (ExtraTV - Video)
"When the Brosnan became nervous about singing on set, he revealed, "I just looked at Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard, my cohorts in this -- and they were as scared as I was!"

Mamma Mia! - the movie (Times Online Article)
"Since 1999, when the show opened in London, the three queens of Mamma Mia! - the producer, Judy Craymer, the director, Phyllida Lloyd, and the book writer, Catherine Johnson - have been dancing all the way to the bank. The time was inevitably going to come when the people behind the stage show might seek to replicate their triumph on celluloid. So, as of next month, it's the movie Mamma Mia! - here they go again."

ET's 'Mamma Mia!' Exclusive! (ET Online - Video)
"The Devil Wears Prada' star MERYL STREEP and former 007 PIERCE BROSNAN dance and sing for the big-screen version of the hit musical Mamma Mia!, in theaters everywhere July 18, and ET has an exclusive preview!"

First look: 'Mamma Mia!' stars having the time of their life (USA Today)
"Mamma Mia! is the name of the game as super troupers Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan meet their Waterloo and other catchy chart-toppers by '70s Swedish pop sensation ABBA in the film adaptation."