This is almost as big a WTF as that nonsense from yesterday about Johnny Depp playing Dr Who. But as unlikely as it sounds, Mamma Mia!'s director Phyllida Lloyd and her star Meryl Streep are preparing a**biopic called The Iron Lady for Pathe and Film4. Jim Broadbent is in talks to play Maggie's husband Denis.
Thatcher was Britain's Conservative Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, and was responsible deregulating the financial sector, privatising public companies, and emphasising the Market. She was a close ally of Ronald Reagan, and once famously proclaimed, "There is no such thing as society: there are individuals and there are families". Britain is divided into people who think she was God and people who think she was Satan.
The film is based on a script by Abi Morgan and, contrary to original reports, is not about the build-up to the Falklands War. According to the filmmakers, the film "tells the story of a woman who smashed through the barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world. The story concerns power and the price that is paid for power, and is a surprising and insightful portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman."
No agreement is yet in place with Streep, but she is in discussions, and all being well, shooting will start at the end of the year. We guess the plan is that the film would play out very much like The Queen and The Deal. If it happens, it's another high-profile real-life character for Streep, and another accent to tackle. "I had a government in England..."