Meryl Streep has made a surprise visit yesterday at Michael Moore’s Broadway performance of “Michael Moore: The Terms of my Surrender”. Moore, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, brings his unrivaled powers of provocation and satire to the stage for the first time in The Terms of My Surrender, a world premiere one-man play, which has been described as an “exhilarating, urgent show is a hysterical theatrical coup d’etat that takes the utter lunacy of our times and turns it into a subversive piece of theatre”. Pictures from the backstage visit have been added to the photo gallery.
As it tunes up for a July release, Universal’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again has added Andy Garcia to the cast. The sequel to 2008’s toe-tapping $610M worldwide grosser will return audiences to the magical Greek island of Kalokairi in an original musical based on the songs of Swedish pop sensations, ABBA. Garcia is stepping into a new role that is being kept under wraps. He joins the previous film’s Meryl Streep as Donna, Julie Walters as Rosie and Christine Baranski as Tanya. Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper reunite as Sophie and Sky, while Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård and Colin Firth return to play Sophie’s three possible dads: Sam, Bill and Harry. The story goes back and forth in time to show how relationships forged in the past resonate in the present, Lily James, Alexa Davies, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Jeremy Irvine, Josh Dylan and Hugh Skinner are the young versions of the original leads. Ol Parker writes and is directing Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again from a story by Catherine Johnson, Richard Curtis and Parker. It’s produced by Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman. Abba’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus are providing music and lyrics and serve as executive producers. Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Phyllida Lloyd, Richard Curtis and Nicky Kentish Barnes also serve as executive producers. Universal’s Senior Vice President of production Kristen Lowe and Creative Executive Lexi Barta will oversee production for the studio. Many thanks to Frank and Glenn for the heads-up.
Without any advance publicity or notice, The Weinstein Company quietly slipped the Chinese animated feature The Guardian Brothers onto Netflix last Friday. It was originally released on January 1, 2016, in China as Little Door Gods, marking the debut production of Beijing’s Light Chaser Animation. The ambitious production aimed to lift the quality of Chinese cg animation and push it closer to Western standards. Weinstein’s English version added a cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Edward Norton, Mel Brooks, Dan Fogler, Mike Birbiglia, Bella Thorne, and Randall Park. Rooted in the traditions of Chinese folklore, Guardian Brothers follows two guardian spirits – Yu Lei (Norton) and Shen Tu (Fogler) – who venture out of spirit-world retirement to help a mother and daughter whose restaurant is being sabotaged by a competitor. The Weinstein Company released Guardian Brothers through its new kids’ label Mizchief. It also has another animated film, Leap!, currently in U.S. theaters through the label. Netflix has made the film available in a total of 20 countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, U.K., New Zealand, India, Philippines, and Russia. The above trailer also features interviews Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Edward Norton. Many thanks to Alvaro for the heads-up.
Yesterday, Meryl Streep has won her third career Emmy Award, which means she now has three Emmys to go along with her trio of Oscars. Streep prevailed at the 2017 Creative Arts Emmys as Best Narrator for the Netflix documentary “Five Came Back,” though she was not in attendance to accept. Previously, she won Best Movie/Mini Actress for both “Angels in America” (2003) and “Holocaust” (1978). “Five Came Back” is Netflix’s acclaimed three-part series that streamed on March 31. Based on Mark Harris‘ book, the documentary profiles a quintet of Oscar-winning directors who put their Hollywood careers on hold in order to serve their country during World War II. Current directors honor each of the five men: Steven Spielberg for William Wyler, Guillermo del Toro for Frank Capra, Paul Greengrass for John Ford, Francis Ford Coppola for John Huston and Lawrence Kasdan for George Stevens. While Streep provides the narration for all three parts, the finale “The Price of Victory” was her official Emmy submission. That’s the entry that showcases the five directors returning home from war and how it forever affected their personal and professional lives. Streep did not attend the Creative Emmys, so no pictures to add. The full article can be read over at Goldderby. Many thanks to Frank and Glenn for the heads-up.
I’m very happy to introduce a new feature to Simply Streep. My favorite part of the site has always been the career section. After all, it’s Meryl’s body of work we’re all celebrating and striving to learn more about. So ever since I was thinking about how to supply all essential information about a project and its making. A lot of effort is put not only into the film, but also into its promotion. So I’ve decided to give each project a press section, showcasing all related public appearances, talkshow visits, articles and award show appearances that came with the respective production. On each film page, you will find a link to the press section in the sub-menu. Let’s take Mamma Mia! as an example: The new sub-site gives you a great overlook on the international press tours for the film, starting in Greece and concluding in Tokyo. There are radio interviews to listen to, talkshow appearances to watch and articles from all countries in the world. The wealth of material depends on how a film was promoted around the world – not every press tour was as extensive as The Iron Lady for example, but there will be great discoveries, especially on her work in the 1980s and 1990s. So, head over to the career page, select a film and then simply click the press coverage to launch the new sites. I hope you enjoy browsing them as much as I do.
And the final update to complete today’s addition of 170 new articles brings us remaining coverage of “The Iron Lady, lots of British and Spanish articles on “August: Osage County” and more recent articles on “Ricki and the Flash”, “Suffratette” and “Florence Foster Jenkins”. I hope you enjoy all the new articles – and let’s thank Alvaro once again for putting so much work and effort into collecting such a wide range of articles for us all to read and enjoy.
While this part features quite a few articles on “Julie & Julia”, no film with Meryl has garnered more attention by the press, especially the British press, than “The Iron Lady”. So below you’ll find a lot of interviews from US and European articles. Kudos to whoever came up with Iron Ma’am cover for the National Post, very funny.
This part features some amazing coverage on the releases of “Mamma Mia”, “Doubt” and “Julie & Julia”. The British press especially has had some great covers for the promotional run. Also, quite an impressive collection of Spanish newspaper articles throughout, featuring reviews and interviews with Meryl for various releases.
Part two rushes through the 1990s with articles covering “The River Wild” and “The Bridges of Madison County”, the “comeback” years of the early 2000s with “Adaptation” and “The Hours” and the superstar years, staring with “The Devil Wears Prada”. Once again, some great new cover stories, especially for 1990’s “Postcards from the Edge” and for the late 1990s promotion of “One True Thing.”
If you thought last week’s magazines update was massive, brace yourself. My friend Alvaro has made good use of the latest technology to digitalize stacks and stacks of old magazines and newspaper articles to share on Simply Streep. So today’s update is split into five posts because there are a whopping 170 articles added with over 450 pages. Many many thanks for this wonderful contribution. Let’s start with early articles beginning in 1979 and covering Meryl’s rise to stardom with “Kramer vs. Kramer” through the 1980s and articles on “Out of Africa” and “A Cry in the Dark”. Lots of great covers, especially from Canada. The 1979 Cosmopolitan article features a stunning full page photo, as you can see below. A full list of new galleries can be found below the previews.