Like us, you’re probably constantly wondering why they don’t make more films about Maggie Thatcher, and similarly wondering when on earth Meryl Streep is going to get around to playing her. Okay, so I don’t anyone’s ever thought those things, but it appears it might well happen, as THR is reporting that Streep is indeed in talks to play the Iron Lady in a biopic being produced by Pathe and BBC Films.
The movie will focus on the 17 days leading up to the Falklands War, where Maggie’s career was in jeopardy, as her approval ratings were low and her enemies saw the Argentines invading the islands as a way to destabilise her, while argument raged over whether we should go to war.
As a Royal Navy fleet sailed off towards the Falklands, some argued it wasn’t worth losing British lives to take back islands thousands of miles away that few had ever heard of, while others saw it as a affront to British soveriegn rights and an opportunity to put a marker in the sand that said that despite no longer having much left of its empire, the UK was still a country not to be messed with. The ensuing war saw Thatcher’s popularity soar, and it also helped launch her onto the world stage, where she became one of the biggest and best known political figures on the planet.
In fact it’ll be interesting to discover how the script is pitched, as in most of the world she’s still quite a popular figure, known as a iron-willed woman who fought her way to the top and took no prosioners. However in Britain, of course, she’s a far more controversial figure. It’s also true that without the immense power and popularity she accrued due to the Falklands War, it would have been much more difficult for her to be so hardline and inflexible during things like the Miner’s Strike.
It’s Maggie’s continued fame that ensured someone as high-profile as Streep would be interested in playing her. The movie, currently just titled Thatcher, would reteam Meryl with Mamma Mia director Phyllida Lloyd, with Jim Broadbent in talks to play Denis Thatcher.