Israeli director/screenwriter Joseph Cedar’s next film project, a thriller called “Useful Idiots,” is set to star Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver, The Hollywood Reporter reported on Friday.
Cedar will direct the film from a script he wrote with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” producer Shachar Bar-On, the report continued.
Production company Fifth Season will finance and produce the film, along with Closer Media and Black Bear, according to the report.
“At its center is a mysterious oligarch, whose influence stretches across Manhattan and beyond—protected by a network of fixers, enablers, and a brilliant young strategist,” according to a synopsis of the film. “Out of her depth, Diane [played by Streep] digs deeper into the investigation, her determination to uncover the truth revealing a web of corruption and danger at the highest levels, ensnaring Diane, her family, and all those around her,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Cedar’s third feature film, “Beaufort” (2007), received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, the first for an Israeli film in 24 years.
His next film, “Footnote” (2011), was nominated again for the same category.
In 2019, Cedar co-created the controversial HBO series “Our Boys,” which told the story of the kidnapping and murder of Arab teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir by Jewish Israeli extremists in 2014.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019 called on all Israelis to boycott the country’s Channel 12 broadcaster for its role in helping produce the HBO series, which the prime minister denounced as antisemitic due to its failure to provide context for the events.
In a Facebook post, Netanyahu said Israelis should stop watching the channel for “its choice to tarnish us in the world with lies against the State of Israel” and slammed its editorial division as “fake news.”
