The Weinstein Co., Meryl Streep To Take Down NRA In ‘The Senator’s Wife’

The title will be The Senator’s Wife, the star, Oscar winner Meryl Streep and the producer, The Weinstein Co. The target: the NRA. The formidable chairman of The Weinstein Co., Harvey Weinstein, confirmed to Deadline today they will be taking on the NRA gun lobby head-on with a film entitled The Senator’s Wife which will star the just-Oscar-nominated Streep (August: Osage County) and other top talent in a movie he described as “the new Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” — the beloved Frank Capra film that starred Jimmy Stewart about one man’s fight against corrupt politicians in Washington. Weinstein announced on The Howard Stern Show that “they’re (the NRA is) going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them.” Weinstein, who has been one of the strongest supporters of President Barack Obama, in this film will expose the NRA for their behind-the-scenes machinations of what Obama himself called “intimidation” and “lies” that ended up defeating legislation that would have expanded background checks on gun sales. Shortly after, Obama, flanked by parents of murdered children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, held a press conference out in the Rose Garden, calling out the NRA, saying the organization led by Wayne LaPierre “willfuly lied” to the American people. “They claimed that it would create some sort of big brother gun registry even though the bill did the opposite,” said Obama of the NRA, and he added, “this pattern of spreading untruths about this legislation served a purpose. Because those lies upset an intense minority of gun owners and that in turn intimidated a lot of senators.” For the record, I took part in the We Are Better Than This campaign after my cousin’s daughter was murdered in the Aurora theater shooting, but my family members own guns and one is an NRA member. Shortly after the Aurora and Newtown massacres, the NRA began making robocalls to the parents of murdered children and other residents asking for funding and their support against gun legislation which prompted CT Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and others to blast the NRA and its tactics. The Senator’s Wife will be a behind-the-scenes account of how the NRA used its influence with politicians to defeat the bill. Two other pictures have gone behind-the-scenes about D.C., both for HBO. Game Change (2012) which followed the rise of Sarah Palin in AZ Sen. John McCain’s bid for the White House and Recount (2008) which took a behind-the-scenes look at the presidential race that landed George Bush in the White House. Both of those were done by Jay Roach.