An eerily similar
Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher and
Jim Broadbent as her husband Denis are pictured here in this new still from the forthcoming Thatcher biopic
The Iron Lady, which Mamma Mia director
Phyllida Lloyd is currently filming here in the U.K. This new still comes from
The Daily Mail. For those around in 1980's Britain, the scene being recreated here is that of the Conservative Party conference in Brighton of that year when the first female Prime Minister effectively put the country on red alert over the ongoing battles with unions in regards to worker's pay rights and jobs. The press would call her 'The Fighting Lady' and it's that spirit the movie is trying to tap into as we are told - "Director Lloyd and the pictures writer Abi Morgan use the conference to demonstrate Mrs Thatchers dominance of, and popularity within, her party as well as her deep unpopularity in the other half of the nation." An executive on the film tells The Daily Mail;
The film covers a big spectrum of her life in order to sum up the kind of person she was, and why she has this iconic status,
The film focuses on events in the run-up to the Falklands War in 1982 and contains a cast of venerable Brtish Talent including Jim Broadbent as Maggies husband Dennis, Richard E. Grant as Michael Heseltine, Roger Allam as Gordon Reece, Olivia Coleman as Thatcher's daughter Carol, Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe among others. That full image below... Since the very first day the film was announced, The Iron Lady has been looked upon as Streeps The Queen i.e. the political minded movie biopic of a fascinating and controversial figure, during a tumultuous time, that will see the veteran, almost peerless actress, be dominant on the Awards stage. And the buzz coming out of the production camp for the movie is easily as strong if not more so than the early word on Colin Firth's Oscar winning turn in The King's Speech. Pathe is set to release the movie in the UK on January 6, 2012 - though it's likely to open in the U.S. in December (footage of the movie is screening in Cannes to try and gain distribution) so it can qualify for the Oscar season. As I've said for weeks, bookies should stop taking bets on Meryl Streep walking away with the Best Actress Oscar.