Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections is headed to the small screen, with Meryl Streep set to star, Variety reports.
Franzen’s novel, published in 2001 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, follows the couple Alfred and Enid Lambert; Enid wants to have a family Christmas celebration before Alfred’s precarious health declines even more. The couple’s three adult children, meanwhile, face problems of their own.
The novel was a breakout hit for Franzen. It won the National Book Award and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Oprah Winfrey picked the novel for her book club but rescinded an invitation for Franzen to appear on her show after the author said in an interview that he was conflicted over his book’s selection.
Streep, an Academy Award winner for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, and The Iron Lady, will star in the series, which is being developed by CBS Studios. Franzen will write and executive produce the series.
Franzen’s novel was in the works as a film shortly after it was published, but the project never got off the ground. In 2011, it was announced that Noah Baumbach would be adapting the novel as a series starring Chris Cooper, Dianne Wiest, Ewan McGregor, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, but HBO, which was developing the series, decided not to pick up the pilot.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
