The long-rumored casting for the upcoming Joni Mitchell biopic has been confirmed.
In a pre-Grammy Awards party on Saturday, music mogul Clive Davis announced that the recent Grammy winner would be portrayed by a fellow Grammy nominee: Meryl Streep.
The star of the upcoming The Devil Wears Prada 2, now 76, will play Mitchell in her later years. Ana Taylor-Joy is rumored to play the younger version of the “Both Sides Now” singer, but has not yet been confirmed by anyone working on the project.
Cameron Crowe, who directed Oscar-nominated Jerry Maguire, is set to direct the untitled Mitchell biopic. It is the director’s first project since back-to-back commercial flops in the 2010s with the Emma Stone film Aloha and the single-season TV show Roadies.
According to Crowe, the project has been in the works for years.
“We’ve been working on it for about four years,” the music writer-turned director said on Late Night with Stephen Colbert in October. The director has been meeting regularly with the 11-time Grammy winner, where he “can ask her about anything, and she speaks with her heart about all kinds of stuff.”
Crowe, who first began his relationship with Mitchell as a Rolling Stone music writer in 1979, hopes the film will be different from the current array of music biopics.
“This is from her perspective, her life, looking out,” the director told Colbert.
One day after the casting announcement, Mitchell won her eleventh Grammy for Best Historical Album for a collection of live performance recordings from the late 1970s. On stage, her glittering gold outfit was finished with an “ICE OUT” pin.
“This is the most glitter and glam I eversaw at the Grammys,” Mitchell said as she accepted her award.
Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep is the only actor confirmed on the project so far. The film has not yet set a release date.
