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”.

The cast for “The Homesman” is getting more crowded. According to The Hollywood Reporter, James Spader and John Lithgow have joined the Tommy Lee Jones film. Jones co-wrote the script and is directing the movie, assembling a cast that includes Hilary Swank, Tim Blake Nelson and Meryl Streep. Set in 1855 Nebraska, the story tells of a frontier woman and a claim jumper who ferry a wagonload of women, driven insane by the harsh world of the frontier, eastward to Iowa and back to the civilized world. While details of Spader’s role are being played close to the vest, it is known he will play a swindler. The movie, being financed and co-produced by EuropaCorp, is due to shoot this spring in New Mexico. Lithgow and Streep has been frequent collaborators on the stage in the 1970s, starring in “Trelawny of the Wells”, “Secret Service” and “A Memory of Two Mondays”, but “The Homesman” will mark their first film project together.

Frequent readers will remember previous news on two new projects for Meryl – Tommy Lee Jones’ “The Homesman” and the screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods”. The reason why there hasn’t been more information on both projects is because they haven’t been officially announced and the statements as of now didn’t sound very reliable. Today, BroadwayWorld has translated a recent interview that Meryl gave to a Chinese newspaper about “The Iron Lady” in which she seems to confirm both films. If you wonder why there is a promotional interview for a film that’s been released two years ago, BWW gives you a clue – it’s only been released in Beijing last month. “Streep tells the newspaper that following the wrap of shooting the stage-to-screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tracy Letts drama August: Osage County she will then film the Tommy Lee Jones-directed The Homesman. Following finishing those two films, in October, she steps in front of cameras in the central featured role of The Witch in director Rob Marshall’s highly-anticipated new feature film version of the beloved adult fairy tale-themed musical Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.” Another article on the Homesman yesterday as well. According to the New Mexico Film Office, principal photography is scheduled for the end of March through mid-May at various locations in the Las Vegas, N.M., and Santa Fe areas”. I couldn’t find this original press release as it was only stated in this article. But since “the end of March” is just around the corner, they might be some confirmation on the film in form of set pictures soon.