We're surprised this hasn't happened sooner, but the delay has not been for a lack of trying. On paper, the pairing of Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep is a no brainer, but in reality it's been hard to pull off. Way back in 2010, the pair signed up to star in "August: Osage County," an adaptation of Tracy Letts' ("Killer Joe," "Bug") Tony award-winning play about the relationship between a drug addicted family matriarch Violet (Streep) and her daughter Barbara Fordham (Roberts). The latter is reeling from the revelation that her husband is cheating on her, but the entire family comes together when the patriach of the clan goes missing, and sparks fly. So yeah, sounds awards season-ready and pretty damn great.
Unfortuantely, the project hasn't moved in a while. It was originally set to lens last summer, which didn't happen, but it appears there may be a break on the horizon. 24 Frames reports that everyone's busy calendars are now looking free in September and The Weinstein Company are hoping to seize on that opportunity. The script is apparently making everyone happy at the studio as it's now in ready-to-shoot form (a task made difficult by the fact that the play runs 3.5 hours) and should they be able to corral everyone, the movie would shoot this fall and be prepped for a 2013 Oscar campaign.
John Wells (producer of "ER" and "Mildred Pierce" among many others and director of "The Company Men") is set to helm but there are some kinks to be worked out. He's got the pilot for "Bad Girls" that he has to shoot for NBC and is busy producing "Shameless" and "Southland." Roberts also has Ryan Murphy's AIDS drama "The Normal Heart" on her schedule, and she might need to work around that. But all we'll say is that Streep and Roberts have 20 Oscar nominations between them, and if Harvey sees a chance to make this happen, he will.
