Mamma Mia 3 is impossible: “They can’t actually pay us”
Amanda Seyfried says the sequel depends on the fair salaries the studio is willing to pay to all actors. And they “don’t have the means”.
Five years later Mamma Mia! Here We Go Againwhich grossed $400 million worldwide (the two together grossed more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office), will there be a Mamma Mia 3 ? Possible, but complicated, if we listen to the actors and actresses of the saga. They are ready to come back and sing along to ABBA. But the studio may have difficulty raising the necessary tickets.
“Universal would love to make a third film, and that’s all I can say,” comments the president of Universal Pictures, Donna Langley, in an article devoted to the saga published in Vogue. Suggesting that the sequel is under discussion, Amanda Seyfried (Sophie) assures for her part: “I challenge you to find anyone who doesn’t want a third Mama Mia !” But for all that, this Mamma Mia 3 is unlikely to materialize, because Universal would have to pay all the actors fairly, explains the actress in the middle of a Hollywood strike on this subject:
“No one says no, but no one says yes either. The powers that be probably can’t financially afford to bring us all back, to be honest. I hate to say it, because if I would be willing to make Mamma Mia 3 for free. No doubt. But that’s not the business we’re in. What’s fair is fair. And I have a feeling a third movie is going to boil down to something stupid: is it whether or not Universal will be willing to pay the necessary money?”
Stellan Skarsgard adds for his part and laughs: “I’ll be in an urn the moment there’s a script for Mamma Mia 3. But hey, even then, I will happily participate in a pile of ashes.”
What does it say Meryl Streep ? “I’m ready for anything“, she assures in Vogue, ready to come back one way or another. “I’m going to have to schedule a knee exam before filming, but if there’s an idea that excites me, I’m totally up for it. I told producer Judy Craymer that if she could find a way to reincarnate Donna (died of cancer in the 2nd opus) I would love to be in it. Or it could be like in an old soap: Donna comes back and we learn that it is actually her twin sister who is dead! That said, here for this to happen, we will have to call this suite Grandma Mia!“