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.