According to Variety, Tom Cruise May be ready to get back to work. Cruise is looking at three pics: two from majors (Warner Bros. and Fox), and one that’s being mobilized independently. The indie appears to be the favorite: “Lions for Lambs,” a political drama revolving around a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Scripted by Matthew Carnahan (“State of Play”), the project is shaping up with Robert Redford likely to direct as well as play a role. This is of course not official – as the article states at the end: There are no guarantees on any pic. In February, Cruise looked seriously at a trio of films, none of which he took.The full article can be read here.

In an interview with the French press to promote “The Devil Wears Prada” last week, Meryl Streep talked about her upcoming role in “Evening”: “I’m making a very small film. I just decided to do it last week and I’m doing it next weekend. I play a very old woman, a friend of Vanessa Redgrave in a movie called “Evening”. My best friend is dying… it’s about an older woman, Vanessa, looking back at her life and it’s a wonderful cast, including… my daughter who is playing me – younger. She has the big part – I have a litte part”.

Uniting a stellar cast, Evening begins filming in Rhode Island this week for Focus Features. The Hart Sharp Entertainment production, adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham from Susan Minot’s best-selling novel of the same name, is directed by Lajos Koltai. The cast of Evening includes Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Natasha Richardson, Dame Eileen Atkins, Mamie Gummer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Glenn Close, and two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep. The drama explores the romantic past and emotional present of Ann Grant (played by Redgrave) and her daughters, Constance (Richardson, who is also the real-life daughter of Redgrave) and Nina (Collette). As Ann lays dying, she remembers, and is moved to convey to her daughters, the defining moments in her life 50 years prior, when she was a young woman (played by Danes). Gummer and Streep, who are mother and daughter in real life, are portraying Ann’s college friend Lila as a younger and older woman, respectively. Click here to read the complete article.

Meryl and the cast of “The Devil Wears Prada”, as well as its director David Frankel are attending the 2006 Venice Film Festival to promote the European premiere of their film, which will be shown at the festival on September 10. “The Devil Wears Prada” is running out of competition.

According to USA Today, Meryl Streep won’t be stealing any scenes in her next gig. The Oscar-winning actress narrates Hurricane on the Bayou, shot before and after Hurricane Katrina, MacGillivray Freeman Films announced Wednesday. The documentary will open in New Orleans on Aug. 29 to mark the anniversary of Katrina’s surge through the Gulf Coast, the company said. It will be released in Los Angeles on Sept. 8 and in IMAX theaters worldwide on Dec. 22. “Meryl Streep’s ability to connect with audiences and the depth she brings to everything she does makes her the ideal narrator for this film, which has so many moods,” director-producer Greg MacGillivray said in a statement. MacGillivray said Hurricane on the Bayou is a call to restore Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, which help protect New Orleans against deadly storms, as well as a “profound musical celebration of a city that has been called the soul of America.” The film stars music producer-songwriter Allen Toussaint, blues singer-guitarist Tab Benoit, 14-year-old fiddler Amanda Shaw and zydeco accordion player Chubby Carrier.

According to Playbill, Kevin Kline will play the role of the Cook opposite Meryl Streep in the Aug. 8-Sept. 3 Central Park staging of Brecht’s classic Mother Courage, Playbill.com has learned. He replaces the previously announced Christopher Walken. Walken left the production “due to scheduling conflicts,” according to the Public. Production dates will remain the same. Opening night is Aug. 21. The Kline and Streep casting brings with it echoes of the Public Theater’s 2001 revival of Chekhov’s The Seagull, which featured the two actors. The two are also well known for their pairing in the film “Sophie’s Choice.” Mother Courage will be the first of two Public assignments Kline will essay this year.

According to Playbill, Christopher Walken will play the critical role of Cook in the Aug. 8-Sept. 3 Central Park staging of Brecht’s classic Mother Courage, starring Meryl Streep in the title role. Walken and Streep appeared together in the Public Theater’s 2001 revival of Chekhov’s The Seagull, which also played the Delacorte Theatre. Tony Kushner (Angels in America, Caroline, or Change) has penned a new adaptation of the war drama. Kushner’s Caroline, or Change collaborator Jeanine Tesori has created original music. George C. Wolfe will direct. The cynical Cook is one of the mercenary Mother Courage’s few constant companions as she and her children trudge through the bloody and pointless (in Brecht’s depiction) Thirty Years War. Streep caused a sensation in 2001 when she returned to the New York stage after a long absence to appear in a Mike Nichols rendition of Chekhov’s The Seagull in Central Park. Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman and Philip Seymour Hoffman also starred in that staging.

According to ComingSoon.net, Aidan Quinn has joined the cast of the independent feature Dark Matter as production is underway in Salt Lake City. Quinn, who portrays a science professor in the film, is working with a renowned international cast that includes Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, Tony Award winner Blair Brown and Chinese star Liu Ye, who makes his American film debut. Dark Matter is financed by American Sterling Productions (ASP) and is produced by ASP in association with Saltmill LLC. Myriad Pictures is handling the films worldwide distribution. “We’re very honored to have actors in this cast who amaze us daily with their talent and generosity. It is a blessing to have an actor I’ve long admired, Aidan Quinn, join our production in such an important role,” said director Chen Shi-Zheng, who co-wrote the story with Billy Shebar, the film’s screenwriter. Dark Matter marks Chen’s transition to film from theater, where he is a renowned director. Inspired by a true story, Dark Matter depicts the humor, frustration and heartbreak that results when different cultures collide and communication falters. The film follows the story of Liu Xing, a brilliant Chinese science student, who strives to impress his mentor Jacob Reiser (Quinn) with his theories on the origins of the universe. Helping Liu Xing adapt but unable to protect him from academic politics are Joanna (Streep), a patron of the university with a passion for all things Chinese, and Hildy (Brown), Reiser’s secretary. “‘Dark Matter’ is a cross-cultural story, a sort of Spaghetti Eastern,” explains Chen Shi-Zheng. “It is about what happens when people from different cultures interact in a highly competitive environment, and the roller coaster ride of excitement, anxiety, and missed opportunity those interactions bring about.”

Unconfirmed yet, but interesting: Production Weekly reports that Anthony Hopkins, Meryl Streep and Paul Giamatti will star in an adaptation of Jay Parini’s novel The Last Station, for director Michael Hoffman. Set in the last tumultuous years of Leo Tolstoy’s (Hopkins) life, the historical biopic centers on the battle for his soul waged by his wife, Sofya Andreyevna (Streep) and his leading disciple, Vladimir Cherkov (Giamatti). Torn between his professed codtrine of poverty and chastity and the reality of his enormous wealth, his thirteen children, and a life of hedonism, Tolstoy makes a dramatic flight from his home. Too ill to continue beyond the tiny rail station at Astapovo, he believes that he is dying alone, while over one hundred newspapermen camp outside awaiting hourly reports on his condition. The film is scheduled to begin shooting at locations in Russia in February.

“The Devil Wears Prada,” a satire starring Meryl Streep as the editor of a woman’s fashion magazine, will kick off the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 22, eight days before its theatrical release, organizer Film Independent said Tuesday. More than 265 feature films and shorts will be presented during the 10-day festival, to be held primarily at venues in and around Westwood for the first time. More information can be found at the festival’s Official Website.