"Useful Idiots" a no-go

Thank you to Anonymous for sharing this info. 

In an interview with Spanish-language newspaper, El País, late last month, Sigourney Weaver was specifically asked about Useful Idiots and whether or not she was indeed going to make the film with Meryl. Her response:

Unfortunately, it's not going to happen. But hopefully we'll have another chance. 

I take that to mean that specifically, Useful Idiots is not going to happen (at least not with the two of them), but that she hopes she'll have another/different chance to work with Meryl. 

At least we know now. The movie, set to be directed by Joseph Cedar, was apparently set for filming this past winter. That time came and went without anything happening. Hard to know why for sure. This is not a new situation with Meryl (or any actor, for that matter). Projects are announced, directors are attached, maybe even a co-star or two are mentioned as being "in-talks" or are actually signed. And then nothing. Knowing that it was rumored to film in Canada starting in March, and that Martin Short's daughter passed away in February, maybe Meryl simply dropped out to be able to spend time with him. That seems reasonable and plausible. Maybe the financing just never fully got together, but for some reason I kind of doubt that, knowing the way Weaver had been quoted last fall about them doing the movie in early 2026. 

Oh well. I'm optimistic about The Corrections getting underway in the fall. It'll be exciting to get some casting news hopefully soon. No idea on whether or not the Joni Mitchell biopic will move forward. In theory, I imagine Meryl could squeeze that in from August through October, but I feel we would've heard more of that by now. Cameron Crowe had been quoted last fall that he planned to film it in 2026. As I often say, time will tell. That project I think would still be viable if they waited until 2027 to film. 

"The Corrections" reportedly set to film in November

"What's on Netflix" is reporting that The Corrections is set to film in November.  Not a lot of new info, but the report came from Production Weekly, which included a detailed synopsis: 

 After almost 50 years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert (Streep) is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson’s disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain on an affair with a married man – or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to. Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home. Stretching from the Midwest at midcentury to the Wall Street and Eastern Europe of today, The Corrections brings an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental health care, and globalized greed.

If this news is true (not a lot of reason to expect it's not), great to see that it's moving forward!  And of course very interested to learn of casting news sooner than later. Curious to see if Meryl somehow squeezes in the Joni Mitchell biopic before.  I'm guessing not.  

Streep and Hathaway begin worldwide press tour for "The Devil Wears Prada 2"

It was perhaps a bit dumb of me to think that Meryl wasn't going to do like weeks and weeks of promotion for the upcoming Devil Wears Prada sequel. I had in my mind that she'd do some press junkets and a handful of talk shows in the U.S. in the week or two leading up to its May 1 wide release. As if this isn't like one of the biggest (if not the biggest) movie events of the year. How wrong I was. 

Meryl and her co-star Anne Hathway began what is going to be a month-long whirlwind of press and premieres in Mexico City yesterday. They follow that with Seoul, Shanghai, New York and London. I don't know if Meryl's ever done that global of a campaign before. I know she was in Japan for Mamma Mia!, but she's also never quite been in a position where is quite this much anticipation for a film, due to the original's iconic status in popular culture at this point. Already people are talking about the fashion and how great Meryl looks. I have to agree, particularly as a healthcare provider who works daily with patients over 75. It's remarkable to me how good Meryl's posture is, how youthful her gait pattern is, and how adeptly she seems to be able to navigate wearing heels. That's pretty rare for someone who turns 77 in two months. 

Of course, with the month of April likely filled with responsibilities for the promotion of Prada, Useful Idiots never got underway. I'm getting pretty pessimistic about at this point. Sigourney Weaver, who was cast alongside Meryl had been quoted as saying they were making it in the beginning of 2026. That window has passed. I suppose they could commence filming in May after Streep is done with the Prada tour. Things could get tight if the Joni Mitchell biopic comes to fruition and Cameron Crowe wants to film this year as well. But I could see that starting late summer or early fall. And then there's also Big Little Lies season 3, which could start anywhere from this fall to early 2027 (and while it seems to me that 2027 might be more likely I have to admit my prediction have been poor as of late so it's anyone's guess at this point). The Corrections is probably dead at this point, but again, who knows? What a wonderful problem to have when there are all these announced projects and we're wondering when Meryl might be able to fit them in! I just would really like her to star in a couple of new/original projects soon, which is why I'm pining for Idiots/Joni/Corrections.  

Time will tell. Until then, enjoy these stills of the beautiful co-stars on their press tour. 

Rolling Stone confirms Streep's participation in Joni Mitchell biopic (and some new set pics from TDWP2)

Rolling Stone is reporting that music producer Clive Davis confirmed Meryl's casting in an upcoming Joni Mitchell biopic to be directed by Cameron Crowe. From the article:

During the annual party held at the Beverly Hilton, Davis was introducing some of the A-listers in attendance and landed on Mitchell, who he said would be portrayed by Streep in Cameron Crowe’s long-in-the-works biopic. Rumors about Streep’s casting first surfaced in July 2024, with the Oscar-winning actress playing an older version of Mitchell in the film, while Anya Taylor-Joy was later rumored to portray the singer in her younger days; Taylor-Joy’s casting has still not been confirmed. When reached for comment, Crowe referred Rolling Stone to Davis’ announcement. Reps for Streep and Mitchell did not reply to a request for comment.

On their own, Davis's words might just be part of the rumor mill. But what strikes me is that Crowe was not only reached for comment, but said that he referred Rolling Stone back to Davis's announcement, which, to me, essentially means he's not only not denying it, but affirming it. Crowe seemed pretty confident in an interview last year when he said he was going to "do it next year" (meaning film it in 2026). And there was that coy response from Anya-Taylor Joy about her participation last fall as well. I'll look forward to additional and possibly even more solid confirmation, however. 

In other news, Vogue released a handful of "first look" stills from the upcoming The Devil Wears Prada sequel. And damn, Meryl look good. 

Looking ahead in 2026

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. 

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. 

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!

Anya Taylor-Joy asked about Joni Mitchell biopic

When news came out a few weeks ago that Anya Taylor-Joy was attached to star in the rumored Cameron Crowe biopic on Joni Mitchell, I deliberately didn't post about it because all the sites reporting about it seemed to simply be echoing it from one source. Not that I've shied away from posting rumors on this blog over the years, but I've learned that "scoops" from The InSneider should be taken with a healthy portion of salt. 

That said, Anya Taylor-Joy is at the Toronto International Film Festival for the premier of her film Sacrifice. She was interviewed on the red carpet by ET and at the end asked about her involvement with the project. Starts at 1:04. 

It's what Taylor-Joy did not say that makes me lean toward her likely involvement. I was reminded immediately of the way Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci reacted when they've been asked about the Devil Wears Prada sequel in the year or so prior to when shooting started. They give this sort of wide-eyed "I'm not allowed to say anything to confirm or deny this" look. If she were not involved at all, she'd just say "No" or "I don't know anything about that," while likely praising Mitchell and/or Streep. It doesn't guarantee that it's going to happen, or that Meryl will even be involved, but this reaction from Taylor-Joy speaks volumes to me about whether or not this is a real thing. Which seems more and more likely to me that it is. The news of Streep and Taylor-Joy is even on Joni Mitchell's official website. 

Keeping a close eye on this of course. 

"The Devil Wears Prada" sequel set to begin filming next month

Production List is reporting that the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada is scheduled to begin filming on November 30. This was an unexpected piece of news. With news of the project being in development only having coming out in early July, I figured the earliest we'd see it in production would be sometime next year. I guess the script was more fine-tuned than many of us probably thought it was. 

Assuming this is all true, we'll most certainly see this released sometime in the second half of next year. I had thought it would be kind of cool to have the two sequels released exactly twenty years apart, but if released next year, it'll be only nineteen. I suppose the timeline makes a little more sense coming off the recent news of Meryl starring in the TV adaptation of The Corrections. That might take up a fair amount of her time, and the filming of Prada this year would make for a more open schedule in '25. I do hope that The Devil Wears Prada 2 is only a working title. 

One thing that I'm a little curious about is the possibility of Meryl's involvement in the Joni Mitchell biopic. It was "rumored" in July also, with no confirmation from reputable sources. However, I recently checked and the official Joni Mitchell website included the post! I don't know if that actually means anything. Whoever is running that site might not actually be all that discerning about what's going on with a potential feature film about the singer's life. Regardless, that fact that it was on the site made me furrow my brow a bit in suspicion. In the original article, the rumored filming schedule was supposed to start sometime late summer or early fall. That would have to start essentially now for that to be true. I suppose it could still happen, but even if it does, Meryl would only be playing the older version of Joni, so it wouldn't be like she would have months of shooting to contend with. 

It's wild how all of a sudden with the Prada sequel, The Corrections, and possible involvement in Mamma Mia! 3 and a Joni Mitchell biopic (although I'm dubious about this last one), Meryl seems super busy with projects. The landscape seemed pretty barren only a  few weeks ago. 

Keep 'em comin'. 

Streep earns Emmy nomination and is rumored for Joni Mitchell biopic?

This morning, Meryl was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her supporting work in Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. Many awards pundits have predicted her name for months, so while the nomination is of course delightful to hear, it was far from unexpected. This is Meryls sixth Emmy nomination (fifth for acting), and her first for a comedy. Were she to win, it would be her fourth trophy. Streep's fellow nominees in the Actress in a Supporting Role in a Comedy:

Carol Burnett (Palm Royale)  

Liza Colón-Zayas (The Bear) 

Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) 

Janelle James (Abbott Elementary) 

Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary)

It's kind of exciting to see Meryl nominated alongside Carol Burnett, who recently commented on her interested in some day collaborating with Meryl on something. My money is on Einbinder to win this. 

Only Murders sort of cleaned up at the nominations. Along with Streep's nomination, there were six other acting nominations for the series:

Steven Martin and Martin Short (Lead Actor)

Selena Gomez (Lead Actress)

Paul Rudd (Supporting Actor)

Matthew Broderick (Guest Actor)

Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Guest Actress)

In other, perhaps more interesting news, there is a rumor that Meryl is "being eyed" to portray Joni Mitchell in an upcoming biopic, directed by Cameron Crowe. I believe Jeff Sneider was the first to report last year on Crowe's involvement in developing a script for the film. The news of Meryl's possible participation came out last night and was reposted by World of Reel this morning. World of Reel was the site that suggested Meryl was possibly going to star in The Thursday Murders Club alongside Viola Davis and directed by Steven Spielberg. That quickly revealed itself to not be the case. It's not impossible that if Spielberg had indeed directed it that Streep and Davis were circling that project, but it makes me take this Mitchell news with a major grain of salt. I was just thinking a couple day ago how nice it would be if we had news of Meryl doing something this fall to be released next year, considering the Devil Wears Prada sequel doesn't seem likely to film until next year at the earliest. The rumored Mitchell biopic is apparently slated for filming later this summer and fall. Stay tuned on this one. 

Regardless of whether or not this turns out to be true, it's fun to imagine Streep being involved in a pic about her friend Joni. Crowe's an accomplished director to boot (Almost Famous), despite having a fairly quiet career in recent years.