BroadwayWorld has a few more bits on the upcoming “Into the Woods” adaptation. According to a recent casting notice, Rob Marshall’s film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical is set to begin shooting this September in England. As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Meryl Streep is set to play ‘The Witch’ in the film by Warner Bros/Disney, with Johnny Depp in negotiations to join. According to Variety, Depp will play ‘The Baker’ – while The Hollywood Reporter claims that he will play “a hungry and sexy variation of the fairy tale wolf character.” At the very least, Depp is all but confirmed for the film, Deadline announced. James Lapine, the original book writer of “Into the Woods”, is reworking the script for the screenplay, while Sondheim is expected to contribute some new songs.

And another event update. On April 22, Meryl Streep and husband Don Gummer have attended the the 50th anniversary gala of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, an organization founded in the early 1960s on the model of artists supporting one another’s creative efforts. It started as visual artists supporting performing artists, but since 1993 artists working in just about any medium have been eligible for a grant. More information can be found here. A picture from the anniversary gala has been added to the image library with many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

Yesterday, Meryl Streep was a surprise guest at Indiana University’s dedication and demonstration of Big Red II, the first one petaFLOPS supercomputer in the state and the fastest university-owned system in the nation. Indiana University continues to lead the state, nation, and world in using high-speed computation to expand the frontiers of research. But in an age where each day brings a life-changing discovery, staying at the forefront means working at the speed of innovation. While there’s little coverage on the event, one picture has been added to the image library.

Here’s an update on “Into the Woods” courtesy Deadline: Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep filming together and singing. Who can resist? Not Disney any longer. It’s taken 16 months to get off the ground – ever since January 2012, when the studio sent out a press release announcing Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine) would be directing Stephen Sondheim’s iconic 1987 Broadway musical Into The Woods as a feature film for Disney. A table read was held in NYC this past October featuring Donna Murphy, Megan Hilty, Christine Baranski, Allison Janney and quite a few other Broadway stars. Buzz of Streep’s interest first surfaced last summer and this past week Marshall confirmed in an interview to Playbill that she was “in” to the play the witch. Today Variety reported Depp’s interest. Now I’ve confirmed that Johnny and Meryl “almost have their deals wrapped up for the film,” according to sources. Marshall directed 2011’s Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 (which might have been more palatable as a musical because it stunk as the franchise’s fourquel) so he’s already Mouse friendly. The original musical with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by James Lapine is about a childless baker and his wife who attempt to lift a family curse by journeying into the woods to confront the witch that put the spell on them. Along the way, they encounter classic fairy tale characters. Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

Not much is happening these days Meryl-related, so have a look at this video entitled “Celebrity Style Story: Meryl Streep”. If you fast forward the very enlightning “expert” comments on the pants that Meryl wore in 1993 (?!), you’ll find bits of old interviews, from the time she promoted “A Cry in the Dark” and “Death Becomes Her” to “Music of the Heart” and “The Hours”. I’m currently sorting some more media files to be added to the archives, including some more interviews and soundbites, so stay tuned.

Meryl Streep’s voice will be heard on a special project this summer: the first audiobook edition of the late Nora Ephron’s “Heartburn”. Random House Audio announced Friday that Streep will narrate Ephron’s autobiographical novel based on her marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, first published in 1983. The Oscar-winning actress starred in the film version, which came out three years later. Streep was a close friend of Ephron, who died last year. They worked on several movies together. The audiobook is scheduled for July. Audio editions are planned for other Ephron books, including the essay collections “Wallflower at the Orgy” and “Crazy Salad.” The narrators haven’t been chosen. Many thanks to Glenn and Frank for the heads-up.

According to Deadline, Steinfeld joins Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, James Spader, John Lithgow, and Tim Blake Nelson in the pic, about a man (Jones) who teams up with a pioneer woman (Swank) to escort three insane women across the prairie back to civilization. The 16-year-old will play a poor, simple, and barefooted teenager named Tabitha Hutchinson. Jones co-scripted with Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley Oliver. Producing alongside Jones and his Javelina Film Company are Michael Fitzgerald for Ithaca Pictures, Peter Brant, and Luc Besson for EuropaCorp. Steinfeld is experienced in the genre, having received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the Coen Brothers’ masterful “True Grit”.

Margaret Thatcher, the first woman ever to serve as prime minister of Great Britain and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, has died at age 87. Thatcher had significant health problems in her later years, suffering several small strokes and, according to her daughter, struggling with dementia. But during her long career on the political stage, Thatcher was known as the Iron Lady. She led Great Britain as prime minister from 1979 to 1990, a champion of free-market policies and adversary of the Soviet Union. Many scenes of her political career, shown today in news reports all over the world, not only highlight her impact in politics for decades, but also recall Meryl’s powerful performance as Thatcher in her Oscar-winning performance in 2011’s “The Iron Lady”.

Today, Meryl Streep’s management has released a statement by Meryl on Margaret Thatcher’s death:

Margaret Thatcher was a pioneer, willingly or unwillingly, for the role of women in politics. It is hard to imagine a part of our current history that has not been affected by measures she put forward in the UK at the end of the 20th century.

Her hard-nosed fiscal measures took a toll on the poor and her hands-off approach to financial regulation led to great wealth for others. There is an argument that her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European monetary uncertainty.

But to me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. To have come up, legitimately, through the ranks of the British political system, class bound and gender phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement. To have won it, not because she inherited position as the daughter of a great man, or the widow of an important man, but by dint of her own striving.

To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas — wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now — without corruption — I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle.

To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable.

I was honored to try to imagine her late life journey, after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side. I wish to convey my respectful condolences to her family and many friends.

As previously reported, Meryl has attended yesterday’s Women in the World Summit to pay tribute to activist Inez McCormack. Pictures from the event have been added to the image library. Scroll down for more information and video.

Meryl Streep wore mourning black as she spoke of Inez McCormack, the great Irish human-rights and peace activist who died of cancer just 10 weeks ago at the age of 69. “A tall woman and a towering figure,” Streep said. The magnitude of the loss mounted as Streep spoke of all McCormack had done. McCormack had ensured that human rights—and in particular the rights of the people she called “the invisibles”—became part of the 1998 Good Friday accord in Northern Ireland. McCormack had also become the first woman to head a trade union there. “Well, there’s no fun in being the first woman in anything,” Streep quoted McCormack saying. You can read more on Meryl’s speech over at The Daily Beast. A video of her speech has been added to the video archive.

According to the New York Times, Meryl Streep will present and award at the Obie Awards ceremony on May 20 at Webster Hall in the East Village. She will be presenting the lifetime achievement Obie to Lois Smith and Frances Sternhagen. Ms. Smith is a veteran of Broadway, television and Hollywood who played the mother, Mable Murphy, in Sam Shepard’s “Heartless,” which opened at Pershing Square Signature Center last August. Ms. Sternhagen has also had a long career in film, television and theater. She can currently be seen as Rose, the car-crashing mother in Liz Flahive’s “The Madrid,” a Manhattan Theater Club production at City Center Stage I. The co-hosts at the Obie Awards will be Jessica Hecht and Jeremy Shamos. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.