I was amazed last month when
David Cameron took residence at 10 Downing Street as the 75th British Prime Minister - the Conservatives astonishingly back in power (albeit via a hung parliament) just 13 years after we had thrown them out for what we all believed (and hoped) would be a very long time indeed. Sadly, us Brits have short memories. As tough as times have been under a Labour government, you watch any documentary (
the recent One Night in Turin is a great example) of what life in Great Britain was like under
Maggie Thatcher's Tory Government, and the last 13 years have been paradise.
It's actually scary in 2010 that we are under the leadership of the Tories once again, and you look at the mass public sector job cuts that have been announced, tax rises, pension age rises and
oh boy... it kinda sucks to me my generation (20's) looking to the future right now. I won't profess to know a great deal about politics because I simply don't, but I can tell you from my personal experience - listening to stories of my parents and my friends parents, etc and hearing what life was like in the North East of England in the 80's, and it doesn't sound like a fun place. She ruined our industries, our livelihoods. OWF writer Simon Gallagher, a North East lad who is a few years older than me, is a kind of amateur historian of this depressing period of British history and he was once close to securing a book deal for a
David Peace style book about the period, which I know he hoped one day to turn into a screenplay. I hope the news from
THR that
Meryl Streep is about to portray Thatcher in a biopic titled
The Iron Lady for Pathe and FilmFour, doesn't discourage him from writing his novel.
Streep (presumably
Helen Mirren, the more obvious choice for the part was overlooked because she is already immortalized as The Queen) reunites with her
Mamma Mia director
Phyllida Lloyd, with the always magnificent
Jim Broadbent in talks to play her husband Denis. The gay singing and dancing of Abba tunes will be replaced by a serious drama about the controversial 17 days build-up to the Falklands War in '82, a frightening attempt at British imperialism that cost the deaths of thousands of British and Argentinean soldiers, unnecessarily.
Abi Morgan (
Brick Lane, Sex Traffic) has wrote a movie very much be similar to
The Queen;
"...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."
Damien Jones (
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll) is producing, and the movie will shoot before the year is out. Streep, who has won so many Oscar noms she has
her own wiki sub-entry, holds the record for 16 nominations, winning twice. Although she hasn't won since 1982... 20 years on, playing Maggie Thatcher - I think we can almost start engraving the statue as hers. In conclusion then; a horrible figure, from a horrible time in British history - but a tale that absolutely has to be told. We doubt the same woman who directed Mamma Mia is right for the helming duties, but seriously... just put Streep and Broadbent in front of the camera and they will do the work for you.