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!

On Saturday, Meryl Streep and Jodie Foster joined forces at the Jacob Burns Film Center, where Jonathan Demme was presented with the 2014 Vision Award for his remarkable career as a director, producer, and screenwriter, as well as his significant involvement in the JBFC’s film, education, and outreach programs. Foster won her second Academy Award for her performance in Demme’s “Silence of the Lambs” (for which Demme won Best Director) and Streep played Eleanor Shaw in his 2004 of “The Manchurian Candidate”. The Jacob Burns Film Center is a nonprofit cultural arts organization that aims to present the best of independent, documentary, and world cinema, promote 21st century literacy, and make film a vibrant part of the community.

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.

Update: A video esxcerpt of Meryl’s speech, as well as additional pictures have been added. Yesterday, Jane Fonda was honored as the 42nd recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award by a star-studded crowd that included Michael Douglas, Sally Field and Meryl Streep. Accepting the American Film Institute’s 42nd Life Achievement Award, Jane Fonda exclaimed, “I’m so happy to add another woman’s name to the list.” Pictures from the ceremony have been added to the image library, with additional information below.

Fonda also offered a bit of advice for the roomful of Hollywood celebrities gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood Thursday night: “Ask questions, stay curious,” she exhorted them. “It’s much more important to be interested than to be interesting.” In recounting both Fonda’s career as well as her very protean life, those who gathered to pay her tribute – especially a blue-ribbon acting sorority led by Meryl Streep, Sally Field, Lily Tomlin and Sandra Bullock – certainly made the case that Fonda had been plenty interesting herself. Streep, who made her film debut in a supporting role opposite Fonda in 1977’s Julia, offered one of the evening’s most memorable descriptions, when she recalled her initial impression of the older actress: “She had an almost feral alertness, like this bright blue attentiveness to everything around her.” And she thanked Fonda for showing her the ropes.

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.

Jane Fonda will follow in the footsteps of Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg when she’s honored with The American Film Institute’s 42nd Annual Life Achievement Award on June 5. The two-time Academy Award winner will be presented the AFI award at a tribute gala in her honor which will take place at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater. Luminaries from across the film community including Rosanna Arquette, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels, Rosario Dawson, Cameron Diaz, Michael Douglas, Sally Field, Kathryn Hahn, Marcia Gay Harden, Chelsea Handler, Felicity Huffman, Catherine Keener, Grace Gummer, Diane Lane, Samantha Mathis, Penny Marshall, Chris Messina, Mary McCormack, Emily Mortimer, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Wanda Sykes and Sam Waterston and more will come together for the private black tie gala to celebrate Fonda’s 40 films and decade-spanning career. The gala will be broadcast on Saturday, June 14 at 9pm ET/PT with an encore at 10:30pm ET/PT on TNT and on Friday, August 1 at 8pm ET on Turner Classic Movies.

Once again, a bunch of movie albums have been re-organized and updated with bigger resolution replacements and additional pictures. For a complete list, click any of the previews below. Enjoy the new additions.

Image Library – Feature Films – 1998 – Dancing at Lughnasa
Image Library – Feature Films – 1996 – Marvin’s Room
Image Library – Feature Films – 1996 – Before and After
Image Library – Feature Films – 1995 – The Bridges of Madison County
Image Library – Feature Films – 1994 – The River Wild
Image Library – Feature Films – 1993 – The House of the Spirits
Image Library – Feature Films – 1992 – Death Becomes Her
Image Library – Feature Films – 1991 – Defending Your Life

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.