Meryl Streep will play Joni Mitchell in a forthcoming biopic directed by Cameron Crowe, according to an announcement made by record executive Clive Davis.
The multi-time Oscar winner has been rumoured to be in contention for the role in the film, which has been in development for some time. However, Rolling Stone has reported that Davis confirmed the casting at his pre-Grammy awards party on Saturday (January 31) at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Further details about the film have been scarce, although rumours surfaced last year about Streep’s involvement, alongside reports that Anya Taylor-Joy had been cast as a younger version of the singer (via Stereogum). The casting of Mitchell in her younger years is yet to be confirmed at the time of writing.
Crowe, who directed iconic music drama Almost Famous, shared in 2023 that the project was in motion and hoped to be released by the end of 2025, which did not come to pass.
About the movie, he told Ultimate Classic Rock: “It’s Joni’s life, not through anybody else’s prism. It’s through her prism. It’s the characters who impacted her life that you know and a lot that you don’t know. And the music is so cinematic.”
Last year, fan support for Amanda Seyfried surged on social media, with many believing the Mamma Mia star would be a good fit. Speculation increased when she appeared last year on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and covered Mitchell’s 1971 song ‘California’. However, the actor was quick to deny the cover was any kind of hint at involvement in the biopic.
She told Variety’s Just For Variety podcast: “It was not an audition. In fact, I didn’t even consider that, which is funny. What I know about that project is that I’m very, very much aged-out of [playing] young Joni.”
As for the singer herself, Mitchell famously shut down a proposed biopic of her life starring Taylor Swift in 2014, saying she “squelched” the project and that she didn’t know her music.