Renowned actor and person unable to ever have a jury trial Meryl Streep is joining the roster of internationally famous Hollywood stars making the jump to TV. In news that will make people who love film references exclaim, “Mamma mia!”, Deadline reports the actor has signed on to a limited series adaptation of new literary sensation The Nix, with co-producer J.J. Abrams most likely on hand to direct a number of episodes.
The Nix, written by Nathan Hill, is already receiving acclaim for its massive multigenerational narrative, which is a phrase we advise against trying to say five times fast. It tells the story of a “hippie-era mother who gets national press exposure for throwing rocks at a conservative governor on the presidential campaign trail. Before you know it, her estranged son—a professor, aspiring novelist and general underachiever—seizes an opportunity to get himself out of debt by writing a scathing profile of his estranged mother.”
Other than the idea that someone who managed to survive the merciless gauntlet of academia in this day and age and become a professor is somehow an underachiever, it sounds like a great social novel of the Franzen variety. No word yet on when and where it will turn up, but Streep tackling something like this is probably a guarantee of watchability. Admittedly, the Streep Seal of Approval didn’t work for She-Devil, but this looks like a much higher-caliber project—too bad she’s already done something called Adaptation.