"Into the Woods" star Meryl Streep is going to star and produce in Warner Bros. Television limited series based on "The Nix." "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director J.J. Abrams will also produce with his Bad Robot Productions and will likely direct at least some of the episodes.
According to Deadline, Warner Bros. Television is closing a deal for the fall literary sensation novel "The Nix." Streep is nearing a deal to headline a limited series adaptation. She will star as well as executive produce the project together with Abrams.
There is still no writer or network or outlet attached, as TV Line reported. "The Nix" is the best-selling first novel written by author Nathan Hill. It is about a man named Samuel Andresen-Anderson. His mother Faye is a hippe-era kind of mother and reappears decades after she abandoned the family. She becomes the center of controversy for allegedly committing an absurd crime. She gets a national press exposure for throwing rocks at a conservative governor on the presidential campaign trail. Samuel has to dig back into her secretive past to try to save his estranged mother and to get himself out of debt.
"The Nix" novel is described as a sprawling generational tale that spans from the suburban Midwest to New York City to the 1968 riots that disturbed Chicago and beyond. It was published by Knopf. CAA handled the auction for it.
Streep and Abrams are represented by CAA. Streep has not been on a television show since "Web Therapy" back in 2012. She has focused her career on film. She recently starred in "Suffragette" and "Florence Foster Jenkins." She is expected to appear in Disney's upcoming live-action sequel "Mary Poppins Returns" with Emily Blunt. Abrams' Bad Robot produces several TV series such as Hulu limited series "11.22.63" and Showtime's "Roadies." Abrams is expected to executive produce HBO's upcoming series "Westworld."
Watch the video of Meryl Streep and J.J. Abrams teaming up for limited TV series "The Nix":