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\n\t\u201cMama\u201d Cass Elliot<\/a> died more than 50 years ago, but her legacy lives on through the songs she sang as a founding member of the Mamas and the Papas<\/a> and her one-of-a-kind solo work. She\u2019s been consistently present in pop culture through the years, with her late-Sixties hit \u201cMake Your Own Kind of Music\u201d appearing in television shows<\/a>, viral TikTok memes<\/a>, and SNL<\/em> skits<\/a>. Now, Elliot\u2019s life will be portrayed on the big screen, with the upcoming film My Mama, Cass<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe film, starring Baby Reindeer<\/a><\/em>\u2018s Jessica Gunning<\/a> as Elliot, is based on a 2024 memoir<\/a> by Elliot\u2019s daughter, Owen Elliot-Kugell, who was just seven when her mother died in 1974. \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to tell her story for a really, really long time, and I didn\u2019t know how to do it,\u201d Elliot-Kugell told us in an exclusive interview<\/a> ahead of the memoir\u2019s publication. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of weird to say, but I feel like, in some ways, I know her better now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe film, currently in development, will be adapted by novelist and screenwriter Emma Forrest, with Veritas Entertainment attached to produce. \u201cThis is not a traditional Mamas & the Papas biopic,\u201d the film\u2019s press release reads. \u201cIt is a definitive Cass Elliot film, centered on her life, legacy, and the mother-daughter bond that shaped them both.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe film aims to focus on Elliot\u2019s life and career, and it will finally banish the ridiculous and false myth about her death \u2014 that she choked on a ham sandwich \u2014 once and for all. \u201cI can\u2019t believe we\u2019re still talking about the sandwich after all these years,\u201d Elliot-Kugell told us. \u201cI started running my mom\u2019s estate when I was 18. One of the first things I remember thinking is, \u2018We\u2019ve got to stop that ham sandwich rumor thing,\u2019 because it was so painful. It wasn\u2019t enough that we had lost her, to then be [made into] a joke. I\u2019d say probably 50 percent of the people don\u2019t believe it now. The other 50 percent probably still do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n