Meryl Streep's Set to Sing Off-Key (& Other News)
Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at 11:13AM
Manuel here with some Streeptastic news.
Meryl Streep has just signed on to play Florence Foster Jenkins in an upcoming Stephen Frears film. Florence will follow the eponymous protagonist, a New York heiress whose lack of musical talent didn’t stop her from pursuing a career in opera in the early twentieth century. This should be good news for us Streep fans because it means we may get three back-to-back-to-back musically-centered Meryl films in a row. Remember she’s set to play Maria Callas for Mike Nichols’ HBO adaptation of Terence McNally’s Master Class while she’s currently filming Ricky and the Flash, the Diablo Cody-penned Jonathan Demme film about an aging rock-star. More thrillingly, the Frears/Demme/Nichols triple punch is the closest we’ve gotten in a while to Streep committing to working with top-tier directing talent (no offense to David Frankel, Philippa Lloyd and Philip Noyce).
It’s as if she’s been secretly reading TFE where Nat has constantly pointed out Streep’s aversion to working with high calibre directors (give or take a Jonze or an Anderson detour). It’s thrilling stuff even if it’ll continue the “Meryl gets all the roles” narrative that’s both inescapable and inevitable; she is a bankable actress after all.
I didn’t want to just share Meryl’s news (lest we faulted for playing favorites), so let’s play a game of Six Degrees and offer some more news tidbits in the process:
Frears directed Mrs Henderson Presents which is being turned into a musical at the Theatre Royal Bath next summer. That film starred Judi Dench, who is currently filming the Sam Mendes produced The Hollow Crown, a BBC drama that’s been adapting Shakespeare’s history plays. Her co-stars for this concluding entry include Benedict Cumberbatch, Sophie Okonedo (!!) and Sally Hawkins.
Dench starred in another Shakespeare property back in 1968 (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) with the Queen herself, Helen Mirren. It has just been announced that Mirren's Stephen Daldry-directed play The Audience, a sequel of sorts to her Oscar-winning role, is making its way to Broadway next Spring.
Daldry directed not only Streep but Julianne Moore in The Hours; Moore is currently filming Freeheld alongside Ellen Page. The film, focused as it is on a lesbian couple's struggle to apply for domestic partnership, just found itself frozen out of a filming location (a Catholic school), presumably because of its subject matter.
Moore starred with in Crazy, Stupid, Love with Ryan Gosling, whose new 1970s thriller, The Nice Guys, directed by Shane Black, just added Kim Basinger to its cast. Basinger, who we haven’t seen a while, starred in Robert Altman’s Prêt-à-Porter in 1994 with none other than Julia Roberts. Once the reigning queen of romantic comedies, Roberts famously starred in Notting Hill opposite Hugh Grant... who’ll be Meryl’s co-star in Florence.
Phew! That was slightly harder than I thought.
What other renowned film directors would you like to see Streep work with? What other connections between Streep, Mirren, Dench, Moore and Basinger did I miss as I attempted to thread them all together? Are you hoping that in a couple of month’s time we’ll be able to group these women together because they’re all Oscar winners?
Reader Comments (33)
Manuel--Congrats! You did the Oracle of Bacon proud. I like to see her perform again in something weird and quirky like Adaptation, something with the Coen brothers, Danny Boyle, or another film with Wes Anderson. Would also like to see her in a film directed by a woman, like Nicole Holofcener, Kelly Reichardt, or Sofia Coppola.
I really want Julianne to win. She has never won an Oscar.
I sometimes wish the Academy just disqualified Streep from future Oscar nominations. It's not that she isn't brilliant. It's that everytime someone points out that she's an all-time Oscar queen they are not pointing out how actually great she has been in so many films. Of course, like you mentioned, this also means she needs to show more interest in working with directors interested in making more than just another "Streep picture."
Also, I love Stephen Daldry. I want another Billy Elliot.
I still actually LOVE that it was Phyllida Lloyd who directed her to another Oscar win. Not Nichols (though he directed her to another Emmy and maybe soon another one), not Eastwood, not Jonze..... and I guess even Nancy Meyers has more respect than Lloyd.
But whatever. That's when you underestimate people. It was such an against the odds win, even of course though her role was baity as hell.
I'm also revel in the fact The Iron Lady was the only movie beside The Artist and Hugo to win more than 1 Oscar at the 2012 ceremony. What a legendary night.
Anyways of course it's even better now three BA winner directors (Demme, Nichols, Frears) are working with her.
I still hope to see her working with Wes Anderson again in a live action movie (though Fantastic Mr. Fox was indeed FANTASTIC!). He seems the most likely. He and Spike Jonze again.
Others have previously mentioned it, but Streep teaming up with David O. Russell could be fun. And if Scorcese ever cares about a female character again, I'd love to see what those 2 come up with together.
This Frears project sounds like a lot of fun! I think she and Grant seem perfectly suited to it. It's the most enthused I've been over news of a Streep film since... Julie and Julia, maybe?
I'd lke to see Streep work with Ang Lee, Alfonso Cuaron, Christian Petzold, Marcus Warchus,
Wong Kar-Wai.
Many interesting projects for Meryl, wow. It's about time we see her in films where she isn't the only good thing in it again.
Also, Master Class is an amazing play, didn't know it was going to be adapted for TV. Is it too much to ask them to cast Audra McDonald in it?
Now that she's doing this project can we get a different Callas, please?!!
Florence Foster Jenkins is an amazing story, Heartbreaking and side splitting at the same time.
I too would rather see a different Callas. Dunaway was supposed to be the best of the stage versions so why not her?
I would like to see Streep work with Julie Taymor. Mother Courage. The mind boggles at the possibilities.
I actually love the idea of this new project. I just wish she wasn't ALSO doing Master Class. It seems even more cruel that that project slipped away from the greatly missed Faye Dunaway now that Meryl is going to do two Opera Diva movies back to back.
sigh.
Say what you want to say about August: Osage County, but I still think that her performance in the film is one of her best, and only ranks second behind Cate the Great.
which is to say that this is the single project she's signed on for in the past few years that I've genuinely thought was a great idea and that i couldn't think of anyone else i'd prefer to see doing it than her.
FYI: "The Hollow Crown" is the BBC's current series of adaptations of Shakespeare's History Plays. Cumberbatch is playing the title role in Richard III, with Dench and Okonedo as the Duchess of York (his mother) and Queen Margaret, respectively. I'm not finding Sally Hawkins in the cast list, however.
I've never been a fan of Meryl's singing voice, but this, I can get behind! I completely agree with Nathaniel- this project sounds like a great idea.
Frears, Demme and Nichols back-to-back is a good combo for Mary Louise.
My picks for future projects:
- Almodovar (my dream combination for many years now; if he ever steps out of Spain to make an english-language movie, pair Streep with Chastain and Thompson and let the sparks fly; another combination, more European: Binoche, Cruz and Cotillard)
- Jane Campion (if only!)
- Aronofsky (if he pulls another Ellen Burstyn it'd be awesome but if he gets her a Barbara Hershey I won't mind too much too)
I tried not to mention O. Russell or Ang Lee but I think both would be amazing fits for her.
And I also think a Jason Reitman or Alexander Payne dramedy would be suitable for her talents. Get Brie Larson (or Greta, for Payne) and Toni Colette to go with her and it's done.
For the ballsiest of moves: Streep and Tarantino, with Streep playing the villain of one of his pieces.
I was with you until that last sentence, Jorge. I'd rather see her in a Von Trier (nighmarish as that thought is to me).
Paul, Hawkins is playing Eleanor, Duchess of Glocester (found that at the link I posted above and on IMDB; perhaps she's a recent addition to the growing cast?)
It's always so tricky to talk about upcoming Streep vehicles without it ever coming back to "who could/should/would have played that role." Tricky yet inevitable. TFE should run Hollywood and allocate all the actressing parts a la Oprah (To Sarandon) And YOU get a part! (To Basset) And YOU get a part! (To Pfeiffer) And YOU get a part!
Ah, I see, Manuel. Hawkins is in one of the "prequels" to Richard III that together form "The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses." She's playing The Duchess of Gloucester in Henry VI, Part 2, with Hugh Bonneville as her husband the Duke and Tom Sturridge as Henry VI.
Meryl Streep is greedy.
I hope Streep and Deniro find a really good director for The Good House
chastain weeps.
Nathaniel, I miss Faye Dunaway. A woman with her filmography should not be shoved into the shadows. I don't think an actress' megastardom has ever sunk so fast. I hate it.
Ridley Scott
Sofia Coppola
Kathryn Bigelowe
Spielberg
Paul Outlaw,
Streep + Von Trier would be amazing and ballsy, too. It's just while I can believe Tarantino and Meryl would get along, NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS would Meryl and Von Trier work together. She'd work with Woody Allen again faster than signing for a von Trier.
I'd gladly take a second (and third) Woody Allen collaboration before the torture of seeing Streep work with either of those other two. God, no. Just no.
Yeah, I suppose you're right. It's just that nobody does camp like Mary Louise and QT likes a little camp in his movies (see: Waltz, twice). But yeah she'd never do it.
I'd add Fincher to that list, too. And maybe even Martin Scorsese. At least THIS Marty. Hypermasculine sets, 3D and/or a million camera angles everywhere... Ha, it'd be fun to see backstage footage if that ever happened.
Fincher + Streep, Scorsese + Streep? I'd melt into a puddle of joy, although I can't remember the last time either of them had any use for actresses that weren't young and/or pretty.
Florence sounds like a solid an very interesting project for the talented Streep. The role is oh so suited for her.
I... kind of wonder if she ever says no to anything? I really like her, but sometimes it feels like being a fan of hers means being complicit in her total monopoly of the 50+ year old woman roles.
Bryan- Of course she says no- she gave Helen Mirren The Last Station and Emma Thompson Saving Mr Banks....
A long time people cried and begged Meryl to work wth good directors again. Now she finally does and of course it's still wrong.
I just don't know what people want anymore....
And she still doesn't get all the roles. She can't play them all. She picks the best. Yes, and? She has worked CONSTANTLY for this range nearly 40 years, there was also a dry-period in the 90's, but she never gave up and moved on.
She's 65 now people, I say let her do what she wants to. One day her era will be over. And what then actually?
Who's gong to be "nominated for everything" like her? Lawrence? Chastain? Hathaway? Someone we don't know yet?
I agree - she's greedy. I like her, but let's spread a bit of the wealth around. Dunaway had been working on "Master Class" for years - I saw her on stage in Boston & she was brilliant. Another great Callas would have been Angelica.
Scorcese/Streep - must happen.