Odds & Ends: Glenn Close & Billy Magnussen Team Up, Hilty's Secret Warren Beatty Project, Hear Idina's Latest & More!

Here's a quick roundup of stories you may have missed today.

Stage Favorites Glenn Close, Billy Magnussen and Julia Stiles Team Up in The Great Gilly Hopkins
Three-time Tony winner Glenn Close (Sunset Boulevard, Death and the Maiden, The Real Thing), along with Tony nominees Billy Magnussen (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) and Kathy Bates (‘night, Mother) and Broadway vet Julia Stiles (Oleanna), will star in the film adaptation of Katherine Paterson’s young adult novel The Great Gilly Hopkins. Deadline reports that the script has been adapted by Paterson’s son, David Paterson, and that the movie follows a young woman who longs to be reunited with her enigmatic Mom.

Maggie Smith to Star in Film Adaptation of Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van
Another stellar theater vet lineup. Tony and two-time Oscar-winning legend Maggie Smith will star in the screen adaptation of Tony winner Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van. According to Variety, Tony winner Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys, Carousel) is on board to helm the BBC film. Smith played the role of genteel vagrant Miss Shepherd in the 1999 West End production; the show has not yet run on the Great White Way.

Megan Hilty's Secret Warren Beatty Project
Broadway bombshell Megan Hilty has been working on a top secret screen role for Hollywood legend Warren Beatty. The Smash star told EW: “I don’t know that I can speak much about it; I haven’t even read the script. He won’t let me read the script!” Apparently the movie is currently known as The Untitled Warren Beatty Project.

New Version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple and Madam Secretary, Starring Patina Miller, Both Picked Up by CBS
The previously reported modern version of Neil Simon’s classic comedy The Odd Couple, starring Matthew Perry, has, according to Variety, been picked up to series. The Odd Couple premiered on Broadway in 1965 directed by Mike Nichols and starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney. It was adapted into a film in 1968 and later a TV series for ABC. It has been revived twice on Broadway, once in a 1985 production with Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers in a gender-reversed production and in 2005 with Producers stars Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. Meanwhile, Tony winners Patina Miller and Bebe Neuwirth, along with Jersey Boys’ Erich Bergen, also have good news from CBS. Deadline reports that their pilot, Madam Secretary, has been picked up.

First Track Released From If/Then's Cast Album, Starring Idina Menzel
We’re relieved we won’t have to learn to live without this. The first track from the upcoming If/Then cast album, "You Learn To Live Without," has been released. Hear below why Idina Menzel and the show's writers, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, got nominated for Tonys for their work on the tuner, currently running at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.