According to the Hollywood Reporter, The Weinstein Co finally seems ready to move ahead on its long-planned adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, August: Osage County. The company announced Wednesday that it has attached Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep to the project, which will be directed by John Wells (Company Men). TWC says it is eying a fall production start. Written by Tracy Letts, the play follows the women of a family whose lives have splintered in many directions until a crisis bring them back to their childhood home and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. Streep will play the pill-popping matriarch, while Roberts will portray her daughter. News of the pairing first surfaced in 2010 but deals and schedules took time to figure out. Streep also is in the middle of the best actress Oscar race for the Weinsteins’ The Iron Lady, and the announcement allows TWC to put out a nice quote about her from Roberts while the voting is still open: “After seeing Meryl Streep’s mesmerizing portrayal as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, it has me even more excited and proud to co-star with her.”

Also this week, on February 05, Meryl has attended a special screening of “The Iron Lady”, hosted by the Screen Actors Guild. Pictures can be found in the image library – additional pictures from the AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards Gala have been added as well an can be checked here. Edit: The complete Q&A with Meryl at the SAG screening has been uploaded by the Weinstein Company (thanks!) and can be watched in the video archive.

There’s news on the big screen adaptation of “August: Osage County” – although it’s pretty much what has been known already. Theater buffs have been curious for a while now about the cinematic fate of “August: Osage County,” Tracy Letts’ 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning family drama that has been in development as a movie for several years. Now the film project – which would have Meryl Streep as pill-popping matriarch Violet Weston and Julia Roberts as her complicated adult daughter Barbara – looks to finally be taking a step forward. An executive at the Weinstein Co., which owns rights to and has been developing the movie, said that a September schedule-opening for both Streep and Roberts could allow the movie to begin shooting in the fall. The executive, Weinstein Co. COO David Glasser, said the goal was for the film to wrap production by the end of 2012 and come out in the 2013 autumn awards season. According to another person at the company who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to talk about internal matters, Letts, who had been adapting his own play for the screen, recently turned in his screenplay to the company and executives deem it close to shooting-ready. The complete article can be read at the Los Angeles Times, a second article has been published by Cinema Blend. Let’s see how this develops. Thanks to Glenn and Frank for the heads-up!

Fantastic news according to Exhibitor Relations. The US theatrical release of “Great Hope Springs” has been moved from December 14th to August 10th. Starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell, the David Frankel-directed dramedy follows an older couple as they try to work out their marriage with a weekend of couple’s counseling; Carell will play “the marriage therapist who tries to help rekindle their loveless relationship.” A Summer movie to look forward to.

A couple of stunning new production and promotional stills, as well as on-set pictures have been added to the gallery.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts announced the winners of its newly launched AACTA International Awards recognizing International Achievements in Film at an intimate awards Ceremony at Soho House. The Artist was awarded Best Film, lead actor, Jean Dujardin, was awarded Best Actor. Meryl Streep was awarded the AACTA International Award for Best Actress for her role in The Iron Lady. Meryl has attended the award, so pictures will be added later today. Thanks to Frank for the heads-up! Edit: Over 100 pictures from the event have been added to the image library.

Congratulations to Meryl Streep for receiving a Best Actress Oscar nomination for “The Iron Lady”. She shares the category with Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Viola Davis (The Help), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn). This is the seventeenth Academy Award nomination for Meryl Streep. “The Iron Lady” has received a further nomination for Makeup (Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland). The Academy Awards are handed out on February 26, 2012.

I am honored to be in company with such beautiful artists, and touched deeply by my fellow actors for their generosity in giving me this acknowledgment. (Meryl Streep, Entertainmnent Weekly)

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Meryl Streep is to narrate “To The Arctic 3D”, a co-production from MacGillivray Freeman Films and Warner Bros. Pictures to bow in Imax theaters on April 20, 2012. The documentary by Oscar-nominated Greg MacGillivray (The Living Sea, Dolphins) takes viewers to the top of the world in a tale of survival. “To The Arctic 3D” is also MacGillivray Freeman’s third collaboration with Meryl Streep after she narrated Hurricane on the Bayou in 2006 and The Living Sea in 1995.

Three new videos have been added to the archives – a live interview with Fox2News from today, a backstage interview after winning the Golden Globe on “The Insider”, and a film excerpt from “The Iron Lady”. Edit: An interview with Good Day L.A. has been added as well. Then, Meryl has won the London Critics Circle Film Award as Best Actress (tying with Anna Paquin for, ironically, “Margaret). She has also won the Dorian Award as Film Performance of the Year and has received nominations for the Iowa Film Critics Award and the Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts as Best International Actress. Thanks to Frank for the heads-up.