‘Baby Reindeer’ star Jessica Gunning to play Mama Cass Elliot in upcoming biopic

Emmy Award-winning Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning has been cast to play The Mamas & The Papas singer Cass Elliot in the upcoming movie My Mama Cass.

The biopic will be based on the bestselling memoir My Mama, Cass, written by Elliot’s daughter, Owen Elliot-Kugell, with the book being adapted by novelist and screenwriter Emma Forrest.

A press release notes that the film is “not a traditional Mamas & the Papas biopic,” rather a “definitive Cass Elliot film, centered on her life, legacy, and the mother-daughter bond that shaped them both.”

In addition to focusing on Elliot’s life and career, the film will highlight Owen’s journey to uncover the truth about her mother’s death at age 32 in order to put to rest the urban legend that she died choking on a ham sandwich. Cass died of heart failure in 1974 when Owen was 7.

The film is currently in production.

As a member of The Mamas & The Papas, Cass scored six top-10 hits, including “Monday Monday,” “California Dreamin'” and “Dedicated to the One I Love.” The group sold over 40 million records and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Cass went on to a solo career, scoring hits like “Make Your Own Kind of Music” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me.”

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