Meryl Streep in Talks to Join Jeff Bridges in Sci-Fi Drama ‘The Giver’

Meryl Streep is going sci-fi. The Oscar-winning actress is in talks for The Giver, The Weinstein Co. and Walden Media drama being directed by Phillip Noyce.

Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaites are already cast in the sci-fi film as members of a society in which there is no conflict, racism or sickness.

Thwaites plays a young boy who is selected for his life service as the Receiver of Memories and works with The Giver (Bridges), an old man who teaches the boy to use his unique gifts of the senses. Streep will play the society’s Chief Elder, an authoritative and antagonistic woman who assigns the young their tasks.

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The movie, which is eyeing a budget of around $25 million, is being produced by Nikki Silver of Tonik Productions along with Neil Koenigsberg and Bridges. Vadim Perelman wrote the script adapting the Lois Lowry YA novel. A shoot in South Africa is being considered.

Streep will star next in August: Osage County with Julia Roberts and Benedict Cumberbatch,

The actress tends to stick to dramatic or comedic fare, although she seems to work in one major fantasy or genre title at least once a decade. She starred in 2004’s Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and Robert Zemeckis‘ dark supernatural comedy Death Becomes Her in 1992.

Streep is also slated to portray a witch in Disney’s forthcoming Stephen Sondheim adaptation Into the Woods.