Meryl Streep to play rocker in Diablo Cody film and Maria Callas for HBO

Three-time Oscar winner to star alongside real-life daughter Mamie Gummer in Ricki and the Flash, as well as opera icon Maria Callas for HBO

Meryl Streep and her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer look set to play mother and daughter in the Diablo Cody-penned rock comedy Ricki and the Flash, reports The Wrap.

Streep stars as a singer, Ricki, who lost her family when she pursued her dreams of stardom but gets the chance to put things right. Gummer, an accomplished film and television actor in her own right, is in talks to join the cast as Ricki's outspoken daughter Julie. Kevin Kline is also in negotiations to play the rocker's forgiving ex-husband Pete. The storyline centres on the latter's request for Ricki to travel to Chicago, where Julie is struggling in the aftermath of a painful divorce from her cheating husband.

Marnie Gummer (left) in The Ward.
Mamie Gummer (left) in The Ward. Photograph: PR

The project has Oscars cache in spade. Streep has three wins and a record 18 nominations, while Kline took the best supporting actor prize for 1988's A Fish Called Wanda. Cody won the best original screenplay Oscar for 2007's Juno, and Ricki and the Flash is being directed by Jonathan Demme, whose 1991 The Silence of the Lambs was only the third film to win Academy Awards in all top five categories (picture, actor, actress, director and adapted screenplay).

Streep and her daughter appeared on the big screen together in The Homesman, Tommy Lee Jones' western, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year. Before that they last collaborated on the 1986 Mike Nichols comedy drama Heartburn, when Gummer was still a child. Streep and Kline starred together in 1982's Sophie's Choice, for which the former won her first best actress Oscar.

Gummer, 30, is best known for her roles in the US television series John Adams, The Big C and The Good Wife. She has also appeared in the films Side Effects, Taking Woodstock and The Hoax, from directors Steven Soderbergh, Ang Lee and Lasse Hallström respectively.

Maria Callas in Medea
Maria Callas in a screenshot from Pasolini's film of the opera Medea, 1969. Photograph: Emilio Lari / Rex Features Photograph: Emilio Lari / Rex Features

In related news, Streep will portray the opera legend Maria Callas in a film version of Terrence McNally's Tony-winning play Master Class for HBO and director Nichols, reports Page Six.

She will add the American-born Greek soprano to a list of real-life subjects that includes former UK PM Margaret Thatcher, the author and chef Julia Child and women's liberation icon Emmeline Pankhurst (in the forthcoming historical drama Suffragette).

Contributor

Ben Child

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Diablo Cody: ‘Thanks to me, you get to see Meryl Streep make out with Rick Springfield!’
The Oscar-winning screenwriter lives the quiet life these days, after being ‘traumatised’ by the success of Juno. She talks about staying out of the spotlight and the joy of writing romances for older characters

John Patterson

27, Aug, 2015 @4:58 PM

Article image
Ricki and the Flash review – Meryl Streep goes soft (rock)
This feminist-lite film about a mother-daughter relationship is fun, in an AOR-ish way, thanks to smart direction and some 80s music nostalgia

Mike McCahill

03, Sep, 2015 @9:00 PM

Article image
The Iron Maiden Lady: Meryl Streep rocks out in Ricki and the Flash trailer
After another Oscar nomination for Into the Woods, Streep hopes to score again playing a rock star trying to make amends with her family

Benjamin Lee

07, May, 2015 @11:57 AM

Article image
The 88 movies we're most excited about in 2015
Think 2014 was a good year for film? Think again. This year is shaping up to be one of the classics. Here’s what’s on our radar

Guardian Film

06, Jan, 2015 @3:23 PM

Article image
Ricki and the Flash review – Meryl Streep's badass singing overrides the cliches
Diablo Cody’s script about a runaway rocker mother who attempts to reconnect with her family feels prescriptive, but the cast’s performances are so good that it doesn’t matter

Jordan Hoffman

04, Aug, 2015 @8:05 AM

Article image
Angelina Jolie to play Maria Callas in Spencer director’s next biopic
The Oscar-winner will play the opera singer in a film that explores the ‘tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic’ story of her life

Benjamin Lee

21, Oct, 2022 @5:25 PM

Article image
Noomi Rapace to play Maria Callas in tale of Aristotle Onassis affair
Biopic will be written and directed by Niki Caro, the New Zealand-born film-maker known for Whale Rider and North Country

Ben Child

13, May, 2015 @10:55 AM

Article image
Meryl Streep 'shocked' at Emma Thompson Oscar snub

Meryl Streep sent a heartfelt email to Thompson following her surprise Oscar nomination that edged out the British actor

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

21, Jan, 2014 @8:31 AM

Article image
Ricki and the Flash review – Meryl Streep rocks out in memorable comedy-drama
A return to form for director Jonathan Demme

Mark Kermode, Observer film critic

06, Sep, 2015 @6:59 AM

Article image
Meryl Streep thanked more often than God in Oscar acceptance speeches

Academy awards winners have namechecked Streep, God and Sidney Poitier – in that order

Ben Child

20, Feb, 2014 @11:53 AM