Happy New Year, everyone! I thought I'd pause my watching of Heated Rivalry on a loop for a few minutes to prognosticate a bit on what we might expect to see from Meryl in 2026.
Let's do a brief recap. The only real thing we've seen from her in four years is a supporting role on Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. She did Emmy and Globe nominations for the first season of it she was in (and won a Critics' Choice Award), but other than that, it has been pretty barren for us Streepers. That all changed last summer when she began shooting The Devil Wears Prada 2. The release date is May 1, so even if nothing else happens with other projects, we have that to look forward to exactly four months from today.
But I want the other projects too! This fall it was announced that she would star alongside Sigourney Weaver in Joseph Cedar's Useful Idiots. Signs were pointing to an early 2026 shooting schedule, but we haven't had any updates since November. The role is a lead one and the film itself sounds interesting, so I really hope that comes together. Rumors have swirled for a while about Meryl portraying an older version of Joni Mitchell in a biopic directed by Cameron Crowe. Without confirming any casting, Crowe confirmed that he was expecting to begin shooting that film sometime in 2026. Meryl's name has been removed from the IMDb page for Greta Gerwig's Narnia film. I don't even think Meryl was officially confirmed for that anyway. And there's always The Corrections, which we've heard nothing about since it was announced as being optioned for (another try at) a limited series way back in September of 2024.
I could see this year being as straightforward as Meryl filming a couple of episodes of Only Murders and then doing a bunch of press for Prada in the spring, to her doing all of the above projects within a ten-month period. If Useful Idiots gets off the ground, I feel like it wouldn't be a super long shoot. Same with the Mitchell biopic. If the Corrections happened, I would imagine that filming late fall or winter, considering it's meant to take place leading up to Christmastime. I hope all these projects happen.
A key factor could be the box office success of Prada 2. If that movie does super well in theaters, which it definitely has the potential to do, that could open a lot of pockets for funding/greenlighting projects for Meryl. It might, for example, get a streaming service to sign on to The Corrections. And just like it did after the first Prada twenty years ago, where Meryl was "besieged with offers," to a likely somewhat lesser degree, Meryl might find herself with a bounty of opportunities, should she choose to say yes to them. This is what I really hope happens.
No matter what additional projects she joins in the near or far future, we'll get to revisit an iconic character this spring. And if the movie is good enough, there's a narrative for Meryl to break he own record and score a 22nd Oscar nomination for reprising Miranda Priestly.
Happy new year
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Jeff, and thanks for the update. I imagine the past few years have been Only Murder on the Building of a Meryl Streep website that focuses on her work. Bravo for forging on! We’re all here hoping with you for quality new Streep projects.
ReplyDeleteJeff, I just watched an interview with Meryl when she was promoting Florence Foster Jenkins and she mentioned having come close to working with Stephen Frears on a couple of occasions. Do you have any idea what the projects were? There are so many she could have done over the past 20 years that it makes it impossible to guess. The only one I’d be shocked at is if she’d been in the running to play the Queen. Just curious!
ReplyDeleteI have never read anything that I can remember where Meryl explicitly states which roles/films, nor have I seen anything fro reading about his films that Meryl was mentioned or rumored to have been in the running. I can certainly imagine a possibility that Meryl was familiar with the script for Dangerous Liaisons and Grifters (1988 and 1990). They could also have been completely different films that may have never seen the light of day.
DeleteThis is Jeff, by the way. Not sure why the site's not showing my name when logged in today.
DeleteMany of the greatest directors worked with Meryl relatively late in their careers and I’m sure they wished that they worked with Meryl sooner - Altman, Soderburgh, Demme, Frears. Robert Altman had planned another film with Meryl before he passed, and Soderburgh has expressed that he had worked with her sooner.
Deletehttps://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2026/1/17/paul-feig-to-direct-mamma-mia-3
ReplyDeleteI saw this news over the weekend and was in the middle of creating a post about it, until I saw the actual video of Seyfried talking about it. The overwhelming impression I got is that after Seyfried happend to mention to her director (Feig) that she wanted to make Mamma Mia 3, he said "hey, I'll direct it." And then the other director Seyfried was in the interview with said she wanted to direct it and Seyfried (seemingly tongue in cheek) said "oh Paul Feig already said he would." I got zero sense that he's actually been hired to direct. I'll wait for actual news.
DeleteUseful Idiots begins filming in Toronto in march - if this article is to be believed.
ReplyDeletehttps://thecinemaholic.com/useful-idiots-filming/