Meryl Streep is not a TV neophyte. She has appeared in two of what is now called a limited series, the first time at the beginning of her career in Holocaust (1978) and then in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (2003), she won an Emmy each time. So it’s no surprise that she’s making another limited series, particularly in this era when they are so in vogue with movie stars. The surprise here is who she’s collaborating with; J J Abrams.
Sadly however it's not Felicity:The Later Years. The project is The Nix, an adaptation of the bestselling first novel by Nathan Hill about a woman who gets national press exposure for throwing rocks at a conservative governor on the presidential campaign trail. Sounds like it would be right in Meryl’s wheelhouse.
Meanwhile that proposed conversion of the last book of the Divergent series from film to TV hit a bump in the road...
If you were not following, the studio behind the franchise with diminishing returns, has decided to finish the story by making the concluding chapter a TV series due to the poor box office of the last movie. Its star, Shailene Woodley, however is having none of it as she said yesterday in an interview while promoting her latest film Snowden:
"I didn’t sign up to be in a television show. Out of respect to the studio and everyone in involved, they may have changed their mind and may be doing something different, but I'm not necessarily interested in doing a television show."
Which is interesting since she has recently finished working on Big Little Lies, another limited series based on a bestselling book. It co-stars all your favorite actresses, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern and will run on HBO next year. Sounds like she’s just not interested in this TV series, which is quite understandable since it’s not what she signed on for.
Who else is on your list of movie stars who should try the long form?