According to Page Six, Meryl Streep will play opera legend Maria Callas in a film version of Terrence McNally’s play “Master Class” for HBO. While I didn’t believe this headline at first, it recalled an interview with Stanley Tucci a while ago where he stated that he and Meryl might be working together soon for HBO, so let’s if this turns out true. It would be another formidable role for sure. Mike Nichols will direct the adaptation of the Tony-winning play about iconic diva Callas teaching students at Juilliard in 1971. Hollywood sources say filming will begin in January after Streep tackles another juicy musical project — director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Diablo Cody’s “Ricki and the Flash,” in which Streep plays a fading rock star who tries to reconnect with her estranged kids. “Meryl is learning the tricks of the guitar trade from none other than legendary Neil Young” for that movie, a source tells us.

“Master Class” debuted on Broadway in 1995 starring Australian actress Zoe Caldwell as Callas and co-starring Audra McDonald. Others who’ve tackled the role include Patti LuPone and Tyne Daly. In the play, Callas reminisces about her storied career and personal life, which included being dumped by Aristotle Onassis for Jacqueline Kennedy. One review after the play’s 1995 opening said of Onassis, “The Greek multimillionaire is so rudely and viciously recollected that he virtually becomes an onstage character.” But, “For all of its gossipy tidbits, ‘Master Class’ is an unembarrassed, involving meditation on Callas’s life and the nature of her art.”

Kevin Kline and Mamie Gummer are in negotiations to star opposite Meryl Streep in Jonathan Demme’s “Ricki and the Flash,” multiple individuals familiar with the Sony project have told TheWrap. Sony had no comment. Jonathan Demme (“The Silence of the Lambs”) is directing from a script by fellow Oscar winner Diablo Cody. Marc Platt and Mason Novick are producing the film, which hits theaters on June 26, 2015. It will be the first release from Tom Rothman’s TriStar Productions. Streep stars as a rock ‘n’ roll-loving woman who chased her dreams at the cost of her family, but gets a chance to put things right. Kline is in negotiations to play Ricki’s forgiving ex-husband Pete, while Gummer is in talks to play the Oscar-winning duo’s confrontational daughter Julie. When Julie gets divorced from her cheating husband, Pete asks Ricki to visit Chicago and help their daughter through a difficult time. Thanks to Frank for the heads-up!

The Weinstein Company has released a first batch of production stills, featuring an image of Meryl as Chief Elder. You can watch the picture in full resolution in the image library. In a perfect world where there is no conflict, racism or sickness, every member of society has a specific role, and 16-year-old Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memory. As Jonas uncovers the truth behind his world’s past, he discovers that many years earlier, his forefathers gave up humanity in order to have a stable society. “The Giver” releases on August 15, 2014.

The full theatrical trailer has been released. It features lots of new scenes from the film, both in black and white, and plenty of Chief Elder, whose role has been expanded for the film. You can watch the trailer in the video archive, with many thanks to Shelby for the heads-up. The official synopsis is here:

The haunting story of “The Giver” centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community’s memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community’s secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them, all a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before. “The Giver” is based on Lois Lowry’s beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Eight character posters for “The Giver” have been released today. It’s been a long time coming for this adaptation to hit the big screen, and it features one heck of a great cast: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, newcomer Brenton Thwaites, Katie Holmes, Alexander Skarsgard and Taylor Swift. You can check out the cast in the new character posters below, which were released via various websites today, and be sure to check out the film when it hits theaters on August 15. Many thanks to Simona for the heads-up.

A making of featurette has been published to promote the French theatrical release of “The Homesman” (it’s still odd that the film releases in France when the US theatrical release is set for October). Alongside scenes from the shooting of the film, the featurette includes interviews with Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Grace Gummer and John Lithgow. Meryl, while not being interviewed, is seen with Jones on the set. You can watch the making of in the video archive. Many thanks to Joan for the heads-up.

“The Homesman” has celebrated its world-premiere at the Cannes Film Festival today. Tommy Lee Jones, who’s written, directed and stars in the film, was in attendance, alongside Hilary Swank. A selection of reviews have been collected below.

The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy
An absorbing, melancholy look at the hard lot of women in the Old West. In what’s probably her best big screen role since Million Dollar Baby, Swank is obliged to keep Mary Bee’s emotions in tight check, but the pain her valiant character bottles up emerges in piercing flashes to lasting effect. Jones’ scalawag is a man on the run from everything he’s ever done in his life, and director guides himself to a performance that is mildly amusing and glancingly poignant by turns. The rest of the cast constitutes a colorful gallery off-center characters for whom life has not worked out just as they might have hoped.

Variety, Peter Debruge
Unlike other actor-directors, Jones never seems to indulge excess on the part of his cast. Though the characters are strong, the performances are understated. Even the three ladies settle into a state of near-catatonia after awhile, rather than indulging their various “hysterias.” In the past, people have whispered about Jones’ attitudes toward women; with this film, he says a thing or two on the subject with a sensitivity that comes as a welcome surprise.

Screen Daily, Allan Hunter
The Homesman opts for a less conventional, less sentimental narrative that shows how everyone is marked by the West. Lyrical and touching with nicely-etched moments from a supporting cast that includes John Lithgow and Meryl Streep, The Homesman also contains one unexpected development that further underlines the tragic lives of the men and women who tamed the West.

The Telegraph, Robbie Collin
Tommy Lee Jones’s new Western, The Homesman, tells a tale John Ford perhaps never could have, although in just about the most full-throatedly Fordian way imaginable. Jones’s western about a woman’s lot on the wild frontier refuses to sugar-coat its subject, and is all the more satisfying for it. Swank and Jones are sensational.

Indiewire, Oliver Lyttleton
Too meditative to tick boxes for the gunplay crowd, and too silly and uneven for the arthouse gang, the film will likely be dismissed by many as a misfire. But in a festival with a lot of thoroughly decent, well-made, tasteful pictures that didn’t quite have us swooning, we savored the chance to sit through something a little more unruly […] Meryl Streep in a cameo that likely took all of an afternoon to shoot.

Slant Magazine, Budd Wilkins
For a while, it seems the film intends something uncommon: to speak for the experiences of frontierswomen caught in the clutches of harsh terrain and even harsher menfolk and driven thereby beyond the brink of sanity. But therein lies the rub. The Homesman speaks for its female characters, but, with the notable exception of Hilary Swank’s upright and uptight Mary Bee Cuddy, never lets them speak for themselves. Even worse is Meryl Streep’s Methodist matriarch, who doesn’t even want to hear about the women’s plight. When asked, reasonably enough, if she has the skill set to care for their needs, she replies rather ominously: “I think this room can hold them.” (As though the Black Mariah that serves as their transport from Nebraska to Iowa weren’t indignity enough.)

Tactic Film, Pete Turner
Saving the souls of three women driven to insanity by desperate circumstances, The Homesman delivers a strong heroine prepared to make an incredible sacrifice. With Swank and Tommy Lee Jones giving the grand standing central performances, the remainder of the cast is dotted with big names given relatively little to do but all getting to make some impact in their limited scenes. Most notably, Meryl Streep and Hailee Steinfeld are dependable as women encountered on the journey while Tim Blake Nelson gets a wonderfully funny interlude when he gets into fight with Jones’ slowly warming wise cracker.

The first batch of production stills from “The Homesman” have been released, and five pictures of Meryl as Minister’s wife Altha Carter have been added to the image library. The career page for “The Homesman” has been updates as well with the production notes for the film. Scroll down for an excerpt.

Meryl Streep needs no praise; she’s got plenty of it. She’s one of the finest movie actors in the history of cinema, and I’m very happy to call her a friend, because to be a friend of hers is another total joy. (Tommy Lee Jones, Production Notes)

Screenwriter Wes Oliver recalled the early development of “The Homesman”, when both Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep were shooting “Hope Springs”: “They were shooting in Connecticut and we spent time with Tommy on the set. In between their scenes, we would work on The Homesman. Tommy would do a scene with Meryl, come across the street, work with us, go back across the street and jump a hundred and fifty years forward in time back into a romantic comedy. It was a remarkable achievement on his part to be able to do that. I was very impressed. And it was also helpful for us because it I think energized our writing process. We were surrounded by a film crew, and by the excitement of a film already in production.”

Just in time for the world-premiere of “The Homesman” at the Cannes Film Festival, a first batch of clips have been released, one of them including a scene with Meryl (which, I guess, is a great deal of her screen time already). In the scene, Altha Carter (Meryl Streep) gives shelter to George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) and the three women (Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter, Grace Gummer) he has escorted. Additionally, four more clips have been added to the archives: Meryl’s speech at the Women’s Refugee Commission back on May 01, her very odd opening number with Joe Grifasi for Lewis Black’s Cystic Fibrosis Fundraiser and a narration video she did for the N.Y. Summer Tourism campaign. Then, the “Sophie’s Choice” roundtable interview have been updated with more excerpts. More information and pictures on “The Homesman” will follow this weekend. For now, enjoy the clips. Many thanks to Michael and Juha for the heads-up.

Video Archive – Career Videos – The Homesman – The Homesman Film Scene 01
Video Archive – Career Videos – Sophie’s Choice – 30th Anniversary Roundtable
Video Archive – Public Appearances – 2014 – Women’s Refugee Commission
Video Archive – Miscellaneous – 2014 – Lewis Black’s Cystic Fibrosis Fundraiser
Video Archive – Miscellaneous – 2014 – N.Y. Summer Tourism Advertisment

“The Homesman” will have its world-premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it’s running in competition! Starring Jones, Hilary Swank, Hailee Steinfeld, William Fichtner, Miranda Otto and Meryl Streep, this period Western is the actor-director’s first helming effort since his 2005 debut, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” which won two prizes at Cannes (including an acting award for Jones). Meryl’s last trip to the croisette dates back to 1989, when she won Best Actress for “A Cry in the Dark”. It might be unlikely this year for her to attend since her performance in “The Homesman” is mentioned to be small turn / cameo appearance. Exact premiere dates will be announced closer to the festival’s opening, which runs from May 14th to the 25th.