Meryl Streep in a small-but-key role in a film about an important historical movement? Playing a real person? You can almost hear the Oscar voters’ hands unconsciously reaching for an imaginary ballot paper and feverishly ticking invisible boxes like some demented Evil Dead appendage. But be still, voters: according to Screen International, Streep is only just about to start work on **Suffragette{
Director Sarah Gavron and **Iron Lady **writer Abi Morgan are behind the film, which will star Carey Mulligan as Maude, a young feminist in the early days of the suffragette movement who decides that peaceful protest just isn’t cutting it and turns to violence to get her message across.
Streep will be Emmeline Pankhurst, the activist and leader of the movement striving to get the vote. She became famous for her dedication to the cause, her militant tactics and the shocking treatment she received in prison. Apparently Streep's role will centre on a "tour de force speech" - so this may prove a glorified cameo or a meaty supporting role.
With cameras set to roll on Monday, the film will also feature Helena Bonham Carter, Romola Garai, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff and Samuel West. Streep, meanwhile, will be back on our screens in Tommy Lee Jones’** The Homesman**, dystopian drama The Giver and Stephen Sondheim adaptation Into The Woods, which arrives here on January 9 next year.