Entertainment Weekly

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY 2018 SUMMER PREVIEW Whether you want to voyage to outer space in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, hit up a New York City heist in OCEAN’S 8, set sail for a Greek island on a return trip to MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN, or just journey back to simpler times in CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, use this 58-page guide jammed with 88 exclusive photos as your map to the best in warm-weather entertainment! JURASSIC MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST CALENDAR WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM SUMMER MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN PREVIEW ( Left ) Christine Baranski, Amanda Seyfried, and Julie Walters; ( below ) Cher GETTING AN ENTIRE CAST BACK TOGETHER FOR A her mom’s besties, Tanya (Christine Baran- one point the director and the crew were on sequel is always a challenge. In the case of ski) and Rosie (Julie Walters), return to three different boats controlling a flotilla of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the follow- the island to support her with tales of how other boats. We all had goose bumps. up to 2008’s blockbuster musical starring Donna came to live in Greece, how she met Shooting ten years later on this amazing Meryl Streep, booze helped. “It took a while Sophie’s three “dads,” how she opened the island with the same cast, it was a moment. to work out what it was going to be,” says hotel, and where she found her prized over- That f---ing song is a moment!” producer Judy Craymer of the film’s plot. alls. The film flashes back and forth So where is current Donna in all this “There were all kinds of chats and journeys between present day and a 22-year-old dancing merriment? We can’t say exactly, and airfares and drinks. Meryl is partial to a Donna (Baby Driver’s Lily James) graduat- but Streep definitely appears in the film. martini, of which I promised many.” ing from college. An unabashed Mamma “She has a very impactful moment with an Based on the enormously popular stage Mia! fan, James auditioned by singing the amazing song,” teases Craymer. “You feel musical featuring a score composed entirely title track and “I Have a Dream.” “I went off her presence, and her moment in the film of songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA, to the Glastonbury Festival and screamed is just such a celebration of motherhood.” the original film focused on Greek-island and danced so hard that I lost my voice, and To that end, the film also introduces us to hotel owner Donna (Streep) dealing with the following Monday the producers were Donna’s mother—and Sophie’s grand- the arrival of three ex-boyfriends—Sam like, ‘You’ve got Mamma Mia! You’re going mother—Ruby, played by Cher. The icon (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth), and to be recording songs from ABBA.’ I was was a fan of the stage musical and was the Bill (Stellan Skarsgård)—whom her daugh- like, ‘I can’t speak!’ ” To channel Streep, filmmaker’s ideal choice to play Donna’s (PREVIOUS SPREAD AND THIS PAGE): JONATHAN PRIME/UNIVERSAL; CHER: UNIVERSAL PICTURES ter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), had invited James watched the original over and over. superstar-musician mama. “Donna always to her wedding to determine which one was Says the young actress, “I can quote every talked about a mother, and we kind of felt it her biological father. Craymer, who also pro- single sentence of that film down to, like, was going to be somebody that’s quite duced the theatrical show, says it took 10 an eyebrow raise.” mighty,” says Craymer. “She was the dream years to figure out the story and the songs While Again features several ABBA songs for all of us. She is rock-chick royalty.” Adds that would be used this time around. not in the original, including “When I Seyfried, “When Ol told me that Cher was Written and directed by Ol Parker (The Kissed the Teacher,” the movie revisits going to be in it, I teared up. I didn’t think it Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), the sequel some of the core hits, like “Dancing could get better.” The legend drew quite a begins with Sophie living on the island and Queen.” That number has been expanded crowd on her shooting days. Remembers renovating her mother’s hotel. “It’s like her into a massive production involving hun- Craymer: “There was a couple of days when pride and joy,” says Seyfried. “It’s every- dreds of dancing extras on boats. “It was they were all there—Meryl, Pierce, Colin, thing her mother wanted and everything’s epic and ambitious—it’s kind of Dunkirk, and Cher! Colin had his parents there, who going wrong.” As opening day approaches, really,” says Craymer. Adds Seyfried, “At apparently had never visited one of his sets, and Pierce had his mother there. It was like our own rock concert, really. And everyone was completely in awe of Cher.” Talk about —AMANDA SEYFRIED something in the air that night. —TIM STACK EW.COMEW.COM.

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