Abigail Breslin Signs On For August: Osage County Film, Starring Meryl Streep & Julia Roberts

Abigail Breslin is set to star as Jean Fordham in the forthcoming film adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County, according to Deadline.com. Breslin joins previously announced stars Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. Juliette Lewis and Chris Cooper are in negotiations to star as Karen and Charlie, respectively, as previously reported. Adapted by Letts, directed by John Wells and produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, along with Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler and Claire Rudnick Polstein, filming is slated to begin in Oklahoma in September. No release date for the film has been announced.

August: Osage County centers on the Weston family, who reunites at their rural Oklahoma homestead when Beverly, the alcoholic patriarch, disappears. Streep will play Violet, the pill-popping and deeply troubled mother of the family. Julia Roberts will play Barbara, Violet’s daughter. Breslin is set to play Barbara’s sharp-tongued, vegetarian daughter Jean. August: Osage County premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company before transferring to Broadway on December 4, 2007. The production won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Play before closing on June 28, 2009.

Breslin made her Broadway debut in The Miracle Worker. Best known as Olive in Little Miss Sunshine, her additional film and TV credits include Zombieland, Rango, New Year’s Eve, Signs, My Sister’s Keeper, Janie Jones and Nim’s Island.