The team at Scots vintage specialist Scaramanga are feeling like dancing queens after some of their products were used as props in the all-star Hollywood summer musical movie Mama Mia! Here We Go Again, released in the UK today.
The sequel to the 2008 global hit, starring Meryl Streep, Cher, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried, Andy Garcia, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan sees Sophie (Seyfried) back on the Greek island of Kalokairi 10 years later, pregnant with her first child, running her mother’s villa and finding out more about how her mother came to have her.
The new role for the Cupar vintage specialist’s products came about when props buyers for the movie called Scaramanga owner Carl Morenikeji in September last year to order 13 blue-glass metal lanterns. They loved them so much they later came back for extra lanterns and added an extra-large vintage brass padlock plus a large hasp and staple to the order.
The Scaramanga lanterns can be seen hanging in the courtyard olive tree in the virtual tour of the villa on the movie’s website for it.
The lanterns were hung in the branches of an olive tree in the villa’s courtyard in an evening party scene which features Cher arriving and singing Fernando, shot at Shepperton Studios late last year. It’s not known where the other Scaramanga products will appear in the movie, so the team can’t wait to see it.
Other movies
Similar vintage and antique padlocks supplied by Scaramanga were used in Paddington 2, The Hobbit, Pan and Celebrity Big Brother 2016. Coloured Scaramanga lanterns also appeared in an episode of The Only Way Is Essex in October last year.
Other Hollywood movie props supply roles for the Fife firm have included 2014 Disney Sleeping Beauty prequel Maleficent starring Angelia Jolie – Scaramanga provided 10 medieval-looking pieces – and 2012 Tim Burton epic Dark Shadows – they supplied trunks for Liverpool Docks scenes. The firm also sold one of their iconic leather bags to 2014 Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow, but it didn’t make it onto the big screen.
The company, which also sells its bags, vintage furniture and homewares online and in its Cupar store, has also been used as a supplier of vintage and antique props for TV shows including Strictly Come Dancing, Celebrity Big Brother, Peaky Blinders, Jericho, Hollyoaks, 60 Minute Makeover and, most recently, The Crystal Maze – where its vintage chests, padlocks and keys were used in games by celebrity contestants including Dame Kelly Holmes.
8 movies in 6 years
Speaking about the firm’s latest movie success, Carl Morenikeji said: “We’re head over heels to have our products in eight major movies in just six years.
“When I founded Scaramanga 12 years ago and named it after a Bond movie character (Christopher Lee’s assassin in The Man With The Golden Gun), it would have seemed a dream to become the first-choice supplier for so many leading movie props buyers.
“We’d welcome anyone wanting to see the range of things we supply into our store on the outskirts of Cupar to see and buy props just like those we’ve sold to this and other film and TV productions. The winner doesn’t take it all in this case, as we have plenty more available – from a Frodo’s House padlock to a Tarzan vintage travel trunk. Find us on Google Maps. If you can’t pop in, you can shop on our website.”
Vintage fans can see the full range of Scaramanga trunks, chests, homewares and bags on their website at www.scaramangashop.co.uk
They can also walk around its Cupar store in Google Street View® via its Google Street View Trusted® tour at https://goo.gl/maps/vi7oYKCxck92
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