In a competition situation, Tom Rothman’s TriStar Productions has come away with rights to “Ricki and the Flash,” a red-hot package featuring Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Jonathan Demme and Diablo Cody, as TheWrap first reported last week.
“Ricki and the Flash” is the funny and touching story of a rock n’ roll-loving woman who chased her tattered dream at the price of her family, but gets a last chance to, perhaps, make things right. Streep will play a guitar-wielding, hard rockin’ mamma by night and grocery store checkout lady by day.
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TriStar sealed the deal by making a commitment to fast track production, which will start in the fall, giving Streep plenty of time over the summer to hone her guitar skills.
Demme (“The Silence of the Lambs”) will direct from a distinctive screenplay by Cody (“Juno”), while Marc Platt will produce with Mason Novick.
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“We feel lucky as hell to have been selected by such outstanding filmmakers to be the dive bar for Ricki and her band. We aspire to be the best roadies ever. I have been fortunate enough to have personally worked with each of the Fab Four talents involved here before and know well how supremely gifted they are. This is a great day in the life of our company,” said TriStar chairman Tom Rothman.
“Mason and I are thrilled. Diablo and Meryl are two of the women I admire most and we are lucky to be collaborating with them. Jonathan and I first worked together on Philadelphia at TriStar, so the homecoming to the studio is particularly sweet. I know Jonathan will do a masterful job on the film and that we will all be in good hands with Tom Rothman and his team,” added Platt.