I first wrote about Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts starring alongside one another in an adaptation of Tracy Letts‘ Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning darkly comic play August: Osage County all the way back in 2010.
As far as the film was concerned it was set to be directed by John Wells (The Company Men) from a script Letts adapted himself with production expected to begin summer 2011. That clearly didn’t happen, but the same team has remained together and it was announced today via press release that production will get underway this fall with an anticipated 2013 release through The Weinstein Co.
The story centers on the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. Letts’ play made its Broadway debut in December 2007 after premiering at Chicago’s legendary Steppenwolf Theatre earlier that year. It continued with a successful international run.
Streep has been cast as pill-popping matriarch Violet Weston, and Roberts will play her complicated adult daughter Barbara.
Clearly this film will be looking for Oscar consideration with Streep and Roberts as the two leads and especially with the Weinstein Co. backing it. I previously included it in my preview of potential Oscar contenders at the beginning of last year, clearly I was two years too early.
