Thursday, February 25, 2021

Streep tapped for "Places, Please"

Deadline is reporting that Meryl will team up with director Michael Cristofer for the feature film, Places, Please, which is being described as a love letter to Broadway. A character description from Deadline reads:

Streep will play Lillian Hall, an actress who is synonymous with Broadway. Throughout her long, illustrious career, she has never missed a performance—not for her daughter, not for illness, not for any reason. Yet in the rehearsals leading to her next Broadway production, her confidence is challenged. People and events conspire to take away her ability to do what she loves most. Suddenly, Hall is forced to reckon with the past and the price she has paid for the choices she made in her life and her art. Can she repair a lifetime of parental neglect? Can she reconcile herself to the demands of aging, its real and perceptual debilities? Can she navigate the shoals of self-doubt and loss, the betrayals of others and of her own body? Will she go down in the record books in a blaze of glory? Not without a fight.


The role actually seems like a really interesting, strong character. I rolled my eyes momentarily when I read that it was another Broadway star (following Meryl's recent turn as DeeDee Allen in The Prom), but this doesn't seem anything like that. There's some threads of Ricki and the Flash in the story as well, but Places, Please is described as a drama. 

Cristofer won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his 1977 play, Shadow Box. His directing credentials don't exactly spark major confidence in me. But it can depend heavily on the material and performers of course. I'll be very interested to find out who gets cast as Meryl's daughter. 

Interesting that Streep is listed as one of the producers of the film, which is rare for her. It's set to shoot in New York this summer, which means a likely 2022 release.

15 comments:

  1. Wonderful to get more casting news and the role does sound interesting!

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    1. I honestly think casting news is my favorite thing.

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  2. I am always here for pieces that explores the experience of the aging woman - as there have not been nearly enough. I would not be surprised, especially given COVID, if it is Grace or Louisa playing her film daughter, though that may not be my preference. Would love to see other actors intimately connected with Broadway in it, like Christine Baranski or Ben Platt. The summer production timetable worries me re: Babylon...but this film seems small in scale and may be a shorter shoo, leaving room for more to come this year!

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    1. Also, Meryl as producer seems to be more frequent, with Lilly and that sex work documentary, and she was going to exec produce The Nix...here for a second career for her, like Reese and Nicole, etc.

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    2. I sort of hope it's not one of Meryl's daughters in the role. And IF Streep does do Babylon, it might be fine. If Places, Please shoots early summer, it might wrap by end of July or early August. Babylon might not film until fall. With the kind of multi-person in close quarters shots that film will need, I wonder if they'll want to see if they can just do it with some reasonable level of herd immunity.

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    3. I hope Emma Stone is cast as her daughter because they are two of my favorite actresses and seeing both of them on screen together would be insane and also because Emma (quite stupidly imo) dropped out of Babylon and I'm worried about how and when she will get her next Oscar nomination. But I fear the role might be too similar to Emma's role in Birdman so the filmmakers might not want to go that route. If they can't cast her then I would love for them to cast Saoirse Ronan as her daughter because it would be a cool reunion for them after Little Women and like Emma I'm also worried about how and when her next Oscar nomination will be. Lol

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    4. Would love to See Meryl paired with Emma Stone! And I totally agree about Babylon. I just hope that Meryl ends up actually being in it.

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  3. Is there any chance her Mother Courage be adapted to screen or tv?

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    1. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but I don't recall ever reading anything about its adaptation.

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  4. Did you see Annette Bening got the role in the Nyad film?

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    1. I did! I would've loved to see Meryl in that role. It was also announced earlier this week that Patricia Clarkson is taking on the Lilly Ledbetter role. The way things are going, I expect to hear casting news on a Susan Boyle biopic any day now. Ha.

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    2. That's her Oscar role then!

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  5. Interestingly on the news about the Lilly film Meryl was either mentioned as supporting it or not mentioned at all, which I believe to be because she put money into it but didn’t ask for credit/input, which sounds like something she’d do.

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