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The Iron Lady has gotten some weighty support. The Meryl Streep biopic about British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was picked up for distribution in the United States by The Weinstein Co., which has a good track record with British biopics. Last year, Harvey and Bob Weinstein steered The King’s Speech through a contentious award season to an ultimate Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. They are likely to push for a repeat of that recent history with this film, which focuses on the 1982 Falklands War and co-stars fellow Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent as Thatcher’s husband, Denis. Phyllida Lloyd, who worked with Streep on Mamma Mia!, is directing. The pick-up news came out of the Cannes Film Festival today, where footage from the unfinished movie was shown to potential distributors at the world’s biggest film market. “Having worked with both Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent, I know that they are without peer as film actors. Even so, I was absolutely blown away by what I saw of their performances as Margaret and Denis Thatcher. Phyllida is doing an incredible job,” Harvey Weinstein said in a statement. He said The Iron Lady would be released by the end of 2011, naturally — which would qualify it for the next awards race.
