Streep and Weaver confirmed for Joseph Cedar's "Useful Idiots"

Multiple prominent sources are now confirming that Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver will star in director Joseph Cedar's upcoming thriller, Useful Idiots. I may have to start easing up on my skepticism of World of Reel's scoops, although in the article it's stated that Cedar co-penned the script with 60 Minutes producer Shachar Bar-On. No mention anywhere of this having been written by Callie Khouri, so not sure if this is a completely different project. 

Weaver had recently confirmed her participation in this a couple weeks ago, but now we have very specific details on who's producing, and more importantly, what the plot details are:

The pic follows Diane Castle (Streep), a veteran journalist who covers the New York luxury property market. She’s disillusioned with writing puff pieces about the wealthy elite and regretful that she might not have lived up to her potential. When a record-breaking sale of a new penthouse hits her desk, Diane’s questions about the buyer’s identity lead to what could be the story of a lifetime. At its center is a mysterious oligarch whose influence stretches across Manhattan and beyond – protected by a network of fixers, enablers and a brilliant young strategist. Out of her depth, Diane digs deeper into the investigation, her determination to uncover the truth revealing a web of corruption and danger at the highest levels, ensnaring Diane, her family and all those around her.

Sounds juicy! A timely story that sounds smart, sophisticated, and yet seems to also deal with the main character's interpersonal relationships, which should allow Meryl to dissect the character more deeply. I'm also very interested to learn who will be cast as the oligarch and the "brilliant young strategist."

Interesting that none of the articles mention a likely date for filming to start. But Sigourney Weaver had confirmed in an interview that it was filming in "early 2026." The original news from World of Reel suggested a January start. If that's the case, I imagine a late 2026 release date would be feasible. 

Season 6 of "Only Murders in the Building" rumored to be heading to London

Multiple sources are reporting that if (more like when) Hulu's Only Murders in the Building is renewed for a sixth season that they may be heading to London for shooting. The season finale for season 5 is tomorrow, and it's expected that the location change may be hinted during the episode. 

This maybe throws a wrinkle into the shooting schedule if Meryl were to participate. I assume they'll bring her back, considering her character is married to one of the three leads. But I highly doubt that she'll be spending all winter/spring in London just to shoot, unless she plans to be there to be close to Martin Short. If she were to film scenes, I maintain that she could likely do that in a very short period of time, like a week. 

Regardless, Loretta's use in the show seems so superfluous to me at this point, that I hope Meryl is simply unavailable to participate in the next season, or that if she is, that her availability is very limited because she's committed to other projects. Yes, she'll do what she wants and she may love the experience of working on this show and with its actors blah blah blah, but as a fan, I'd like to see her move on (if OMITB were somehow to prevent her from joining other projects). 

Stay tuned for more news on this, as it'll likely be announced shortly after the conclusion of the current season. 

Sigourney Weaver confirms "Useful Idiots" to film in early 2026

In an interview for the December issue of Empire UK, Sigourney confirmed that she is indeed participating in Joseph Cedar's upcoming project Useful Idiots, with filming expected to get underway early next year. Initial reports had suggested a January timeline. From the article: 

Although, I am playing Meryl Streep's best friend in a movie that's going to shoot at the beginning of 2026 (Joseph Cedar's Useful Idiots). And that'll be fun! I mean, how rare is it to have two older women who are best friends, and have a history together? I'm delighted they're even having that in a movie, that's a shock. And so now, yeah. I'm ready finally to play the best-friend part. 

That's as solid confirmation as I think we need that this is moving forward. As previously reported, Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) penned the screenplay. No official word on whether this is officially a feature film or a limited series, but my impression is that it's a film. Still no word on plot, and maybe I'm reading too much into this, but Weaver stating that she's playing Meryl's best friend suggests to me that Meryl may have more a lead role and Weaver supporting. I certainly hope Meryl features prominently regardless, and would love for it to be a co-lead scenario! With Khouri's writing, that latter would not surprise me at all. Hopefully when the trades announce this project more formally we'll get some sense of a plot. Knowing Cedar's filmography, I'm not anticipating a comedy. 

Episode 8 of "Only Murders in the Building"--season 5

Meryl's character of Loretta returned for episode 8 of Hulu's Only Murders in the Building last night. It was interesting in that the majority of the episode centered on Loretta, Mabel (Selena Gomez), Williams (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), Lorraine (Dianne Wiest) and Camila (Renée Zellweger). They have a sort of ladies night in the casino in the basement of the Arconia, with Loretta, Mable, Williams and Lorraine intent on getting a confession out of Camila for killing Lester. 

Loretta pretends to be a psychic (with an Eastern European/Russian accent I think) in an attempt to get some information from Camila. I have to admit I'm sort of blind to a lot of the details of the plot of this show at this point because I find them so insane and uninteresting, but it was definitely fun to see Meryl onscreen again with Zellweger, after their pairing in 1998's gem One True Thing (which I just watched this past weekend because it reminds me a lot of this time of year). 

Two episodes left of this series season. I suppose Loretta will show up in at least one more before she "heads back" to New Zealand (yawn).  

Here's hoping the rumors of Useful Idiots, the Joni Mithcell biopic and/or The Corrections actually come to fruition so that Meryl can be delivered of this material. Sorry to be negative, guys. I'm sure she's had/having a blast filming Murders, but it is exceedingly tedious at this point. Looking forward to more interesting things for her. 

Episode 6 of "Only Murders in the Building"--season 5

Meryl returned to the small screen tonight for episode 6 of the latest season of Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. This is her character Loretta's first appearance in the season. Loretta's apartment in Los Angeles burns down and she shows on her husband's (Oliver) door in New York. The episode goes on to see Loretta and Oliver teaming up to track down the characters Lorraine and Sofia (played by Dianne Wiest and Téa Leoni, respectively), whom they suspect are murderers. 

OK that's a super simple summary of Loretta's involvement in the episode and I don't feel like getting further into it because the show is getting so tedious for me to want to bother. I think it would be good if they wrapped up the series after this season. All that said, it was great to see Meryl in something new. She and Martin Short have a nice chemistry, not surprising as they seem to be a couple off-screen as well. Meryl does a Cajun accent in the episode, which Loretta calls a "chunky Cajun drawl" that one of her characters in SVU has. I don't know the accent well enough to know whether or not Meryl nailed it, struggled with it, or purposely didn't do it well because "Loretta" the character wouldn't be able to do it well. It was also nice to see her working opposite Dianne Wiest again (2020's Let Them All Talk), particularly as they discuss opera singer Maria Callas and her final performance of Tosca at the Met. Meryl of course considers Callas the "greatest artist of the 20th century." 

Overall it was a cute episode, and I imagine it'll be the one that Martin Short submits for Emmy consideration next year, being it covers the arc of his character having to recall memories and experiences of a tough childhood in a series of foster homes. 

Streep and Weaver rumored for "The Useful Idiots"

Let's take this with a rather large grain of salt again considering the source, but World of Reel is reporting today that Meryl and Sigourney Weaver are circling a project at Amazon entitled Useful Idiots. Thelma & Louise writer Callie Khouri wrote the screenplay and it apparently already has a director attached, Joseph Cedar. Cedar is known for his films Footmate and Norman, among others. 

I did a little sleuthing and there are reports as far back as 2020 of Khouri having written The Useful Idiots (the "The" is in most of the articles I've seen other the the World of Reel one) as a series. The World of Reel article seemed to intimate that this would be a feature film, but who knows. 

While Jordan Ruimy doesn't have the greatest of reputations among discerning readers whom I've followed, the fact that this is/was a legit project form Khouri and has a director already named/attached, along with a specific co-star, makes me feel that it wasn't conjured from thin air. Ruimy suggests that filming is set to start in January. If that were to happen, it doesn't seem like The Corrections would get underway before that time. Speaking of the latter project, I really want it to happen. It would be so dumb for it to essentially go through development hell three times only to never see the light of day as a screen production. But they may be taking a while to complete the script. 

As far as The Useful Idiots, there is no mention in any source I can find of what it might be about. A "useful idiot" is, by definition "a pejorative description of a person, suggesting that the person thinks they are fighting for a cause without fully comprehending the consequences of their actions, and who does not realize they are being manipulated by the cause's leaders or by other political players." Seems likely to have a political bent to it, which is not surprising considering the times we live in and, of course, Meryl's interests. 

After a year and a half of hand-wringing, if every rumored or announced project comes to fruition in the next couple of years, we could have:

The Devil Wears Prada 2

The Useful Idiots

Narnia (voice)

Joni Mitchell biopic

The Corrections

Mamma Mia! 3

Glad to see she's back!

"Big Little Lies" season 3 might actually happen after all

Multiple sources are reporting today that Francesca Sloane (co-creator and showrunner of Mr. & Mrs. Smith) has been hired by HBO to pen the first episode of season 3 of Big Little Lies. Author Liane Moriarty's much anticipated follow-up to the original novel is apparently set for release in 2026. Which I'm guessing means that shooting for season 3 would not begin until the earlies the second half of next year. That book involves a time jump, per Moriarty, where the kids are all teenagers. This would fit nicely for the current ages of all the actors, as season 2 was already way back in 2019. 

We don't know what this means for Meryl. Knowing that Moriarty specifically wrote a character for Meryl for the second season, I would not be surprised if she somehow included "Mary Louise" in the new book. At the same time, I think it would totally make sense if they moved on from that storyline, and I personally would not mind if Meryl moved on to other, original projects (same with Only Murders in the Building). 

More to come, I'm sure. 

Francesca Sloane