According to ITV, Mamma Mia! has been named best musical with leading lady Meryl Streep winning best actress at the second National Movie Awards in London. Accepting her award for her role in Abba-centric film, Streep told the Royal Festival Hall audience: “I loved the movie, I’m so glad you did.” Mamma Mia! beat competition from fellow nominees Enchanted and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Streep triumphed over Amy Adams for Enchanted, Helena Bonham-Carter for Sweeney Todd and Ellen Page for US comedy Juno.

While there’s still no official word on wheter Meryl will star in Nancy Meyer’s upcoming untitled comedy or not, another cast member has been added to the project. Alec Baldwin is in talks to join Meryl Streep in Nancy Meyers’s romantic comedy. Baldwin will play one of two men vying for the affections of Streep’s character. The Universal movie, which Meyers has written and will direct, is to begin production next February.

According to Variety, Meryl Streep is in advanced negotiations to play the female lead in the untitled romantic comedy that Nancy Meyers will direct for Universal. Meyers is producing with Scott Rudin. Production begins in February. Streep will play the female in a romantic triangle with two men. The director, who made “Something’s Gotta Give” and “The Holiday” for Columbia Pictures, made the deal to bring her next picture to Universal earlier this year. Streep is currently voicing a lead role in “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” the stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel at 20th Century Fox.

Mamma Mia!, The Golden Compass and St Trinian’s lead the field for the National Movie Awards, picking up four nominations each. Mamma Mia! cohorts Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth are up for Best Male for their roles in the Abba musical film. Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie and Sarah Jessica Parker are also in the running for the award. The winners, voted for by the public, will be unveiled in London on September 08 at London’s Royal Festival Hall and in a live ceremony screened on ITV1. You can vote for Meryl by submitting your vote here.

In spite of stiff competition from the newest Batman film, the film version of Mamma Mia! enjoyed a strong opening weekend at the box office, taking in a solid $27.6 million. Although that total didn’t approach The Dark Knight’s record-breaking $155.4 million, it narrowly beat the opening total of last year’s feature film transfer of Hairspray. Universal Studios’ decision to release Mamma Mia! as a counter-programming move to the dark sequel to Batman Begins paid off. Together, the two films created the biggest opening weekend ever in terms of total grosses, according to Variety. Overseas, where Mamma Mia! opened a week ahead of its U.S. premiere, the movie grossed $26.8 million in its second week for an impressive total of $72.6 million.

Article courtesy this source: Abba welcomed a bevy of Hollywood stars to Stockholm on Friday for the première of Mamma Mia! -The movie. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad Reuss made a rare public appearance together with their former Abba partners, Björn Ulveaus and Benny Andersson, on the night of the première of “Mamma Mia!” – a musical based on the disco sound of the Swedish group, Abba. The film’s star Meryl Streep was the big attraction of the afternoon and she was in a party mood, dancing a jig with Agnetha and Annefrid on the red carpet. She had told the press earlier in the day that singing and dancing in a musical was a childhood dream. “When I was in school I was in several musicals where I sang and danced. It was like coming home to something I love.”

According to this source, Meryl Streep, who stars as Donna in the Abba musical Mamma Mia, will attend the Australian premiere in Melbourne next week. Mamma Mia also features Colin Firth as Harry Bright. Firth will also be at the premiere. The Mamma Mia movie is based on the musical with songs by Abba. On soundtrack, 17 Abba songs have been re-recorded for the movie, with Meryl Streep herself singing ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘The Winner Takes It All’ as well as ‘S.O.S.’ and ‘When All Is Said And Done’ as a duet with Pierce Brosnan, who stars in the movie as Sam Carmichael.

Universal Pictures said Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth are to appear at the upcoming London premiere of their movie musical “Mamma Mia!”. Based on the hit stage musical and featuring hits from the ABBA song catalog, the film version of “Mamma Mia!” is to open in the United States July 18. The world premiere of the wedding-themed movie is scheduled June 30 at London’s Odeon Leicester Square theater. Also slated to attend the event are supporting players Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried and Christine Baranski, the movie studio said.

Stars from the stage and screen versions of Mamma Mia! are to be featured in an edition of The South Bank Show. Julie Walters, Colin Firth and Meryl Streep – who star in the film version due for release in July – are among some of the names lined up to appear in the programme. It will also contain interviews with Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from ABBA and behind the scenes footage of a new opening of the production in Europe. There will also be contributions from the creative team behind the show. An exact airdate is not yet given.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, First Independent Pictures will handle North American theatrical distribution for Chen Shi-Zheng’s dramatic thriller “Dark Matter,” starring Liu Ye, Aidan Quinn and Meryl Streep. Based on a true story, the film follows a Chinese science student (Liu Ye) invited by a professor (Quinn) to travel to the U.S. to study for his Ph.D., but the pressures of his new environment cause him to slowly unravel. Streep plays his mentor. The film will be released in April, followed by a DVD release via a home video deal that is now being finalized. “Dark Matter” won the Alfred P. Sloan award when it premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.