A movie about Mama Cass of the Mamas and Papas is in the works

British actress Jessica Gunning was called to play the part of the protagonist of a biographical film that traces the life of Ellen Naomi Cohen in art Cass Elliot of the The Mamas and the Papas.

Elliot, also known as Mama Casswas one of the founders of the group and then pursued a solo career after the group disbanded. The Baltimore-born musician has released her latest album, Live “Don’t Call Me Mama Anymore”in 1973 and died of heart failure a year later, at the age of 32.

The film about his life will be titled
‘My Mama, Cass’
and is based on the memoirs published in 2024 by her daughter,
Owen Elliot-Kugell
who was only seven years old when he lost his mother. Before the volume’s release, in an interview with Rolling Stone he said: “I’ve wanted to tell her story for a long time, and I didn’t know how to do it. It’s a little strange to say, but I feel like, in some ways, I know her better now.”

According to a press release, the film is “not a traditional biopic about The Mamas and The Papas. It is a definitive film about Cass Elliot, focusing on her life, her legacy, and the mother-daughter bond that shaped them both.” In 2020, a journalist and friend of
Mama Cass
,
Sue Cameron
admitted that he had popularized the rumor that she had choked to death on a ham sandwich by placing it in her obituary in the Hollywood Reporter. Cameron claimed that Elliot’s manager asked her to publish it because that was preferable to suggesting that her death was associated with drug abuse.

According to the autopsy,
Cass Elliot
she died of a heart attack in her sleep after feeling ill the night before, and had no drugs in her system. Her daughter also explained to Rolling Stone: “I can’t believe we’re still talking about the sandwich after all these years. I started dealing with my mother’s inheritance when I was 18. One of the first things I remember thinking was, ‘We need to stop that ham sandwich thing,’ because it was so painful. It wasn’t enough that we lost it, and then it was turned into a joke. I’d say probably 50% of people don’t believe it anymore. The other 50% probably still believe it.”