Well, here’s a bracing picture to go with your morning cup of coffee. With filming now underway on “The Iron Lady,” a biopic of the controversial former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Deadline has posted a first look at Meryl Streep in the titular role, and she certainly looks the part.
Joining Streep in the picture is an extensive cast of British acting vets including: Jim Broadbent as Thatcher’s husband Denis; “Hot Fuzz” actress Olivia Colman as daughter Carol; rising star Alexandra Roach as the younger Thatcher; “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” star Anthony Head will play Geoffrey Howe, Thatcher’s longest-serving Cabinet colleague; former Secretary of State For Defence John Nott will be represented by Angus Wright (”The Bank Job”); Michael Heseltine, Thatcher’s frequent rival, will be played by familiar face Richard E. Grant; Julian Wadham (”The English Patient”) will take on the late Foreign Secretary, Francis Pym; Roger Allam (“Speed Racer,” “Tamara Drewe”) will play spin doctor Gordon Reece and Shakespeare veteran Michael Pennington (”Return Of The Jedi”) will play Michael Foot, leader of the Labour party.
The script is by “Brick Lane” writer Abi Morgan, although we’re told that Michael Hirst, creator of “The Tudors,” and writer of the two Shekhar Kapur/Cate Blanchett “Elizabeth” films, did a polish before the film started lensing. “The Iron Lady” marks the re-teaming of Streep and her “Mamma Mia” director Phyllida Lloyd. Fox will release the film in the U.K., and while there is no U.S. distributor on board just yet, that should change after footage is shown at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.
