Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Looking ahead to 2019

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope everyone had a great 2018. Looking back on the year Meryl had, it was generally pretty quiet as far as releases go. Yes, she was honored with her 21st Oscar nomination for The Post, but her only two screen roles were both for sequels: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Mary Poppins Returns. While her performances in both movies were small, the two films themselves were/are fairly high-profile, particularly when it comes to their respective box office returns. Mamma Mia! had a worldwide total of almost $400 million, while Mary Poppins, currently in theaters, is likely to fair similarly well.

2019 should be a very different year in terms of Meryl's roles, however. The 'big one' will likely be Big Little Lies, in which she portrays Mary Louise Wright, mother-in-law to Nicole Kidman's character, Celeste. I think I posted at one point that I expected a trailer for the HBO series in the fall, but thus far all we've had are some pics and a brief action shot of Streep in a teaser promotion. There is still no official word on when the second (and likely final) season will premiere, but there's been buzz that it will land in March. Considering it's seven episodes, all of which Meryl is apparently in by the way, it's highly unlikely to be much later, as they'll want it to wrap up before Emmy deadlines on May 31st. Meryl's role is said to be juicy, and with the shear scope and popularity of the show, this may be the key performance of her year.

Next fall we'll get to see her in two separate films, Steven Soderbergh's The Laundromat and Greta Gerwig's remake of Little Women. Both films have wrapped, with Laundromat's release date yet to be finalized. I'm not sure if it will be released in theaters at the same time it goes to Netflix, but I imagine it'll be fourth quarter. All signs point to Streep's role being a supporting one. When it was first announced that she had joined the cast, it was said that her character would be the "emotional through-line" of the picture. I'm guessing she plays one of the people who are defrauded by the firm Mossack Fonseca. Maybe we'll see her a bit at the beginning of the film, and then her plight will be the undercurrent of what the rest of the film is based upon, in that the firm is found to be an enormous front for money laundering and fraud.

Little Women will hit theaters on Christmas Day. The cast of course is highly touted, but by all accounts, Meryl's role as Aunt March may be a very minor one. Not that that's necessarily bad, as it's good when she's in seemingly great projects with good directors, but of course it's always nice to see her more prominently showcased in lead roles.

And I know she also has the Martin Scorsese project with Sharon Stone lined up, but until we have more definitive info on what it's actually about, my assumption will continue to be that it's not actually a narrative feature film where Meryl is playing a role, but more of a salutatory retrospective on someone's career...like Robert De Niro.

Which brings us to probably my favorite part of blogging: potential future projects. IMDbPro currently only lists The Nix as "Projects in Development" for Streep. It's been over two years since it was announced that she would not only star in but produce a limited series based on Nathan Hill's hit debut novel. Another possible (prominent?) supporting role, but might we see this put into production sometime this spring or summer? I hope so. Other than that, we have no
confirmed projects or interests from team Streep. I maintain that The Good House would be a fantastic project, but as it's been over five years since that was announced, the further out it's pushed, the less likely it seems it will happen. Were Nyad a possibility, filming it this year would be prefect timing for a summer 2020 release, sentimentally coinciding with the schmaltzy coverage of the Olympics.

As always, time will tell how her performances this year will be received, as well as what we can expect for future projects. Regardless, I'm excited for the next twelve months!

What do you guys think? Any roles you want to throw out there as suggestions or predictions of what we might see Meryl tackle in the next few years?

2 comments:

  1. As always, interesting to read your musings on what might be Jeff.

    I do love the idea of both Nyad and The Good House being made in the near future. I think they each offer a complex and interesting character for an older actress to sink her teeth into and with the right Director and top notch writing they could be two terrific movies.
    Also, if Meryl were to star in these we would see her take on roles fairly dissimilar to her previous, albeit varied work!

    I'm not quite so excited about The Nix but I do understand it could capture the current American (and world) zeitgeist and be an interesting watch.

    I was so disappointed Meryl came so close to starring in Masterclass in 2015 abd would love this to still happen. Unfortunately this seems very unlikely right now. I do wonder what MS.Dunaway thought when this was in production, given how hard she's tried to finish her adaption?!

    I've made no secret of wanting to see Meryl back on stage. I recall in an interview she talked about wanting to do a brand new production but hadn't had the chance yet. How amazing to see her get back to her first love in the acting world and potentially originate a character as memorable as Sister Alolyious or Violet Weston? Or even do a musical?

    I'm very (selfishly) glad she isn't slowing down too much and looking forward to some future news!

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  2. Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro. Martin Scorsese secret project?

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