Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver Team Up to Take On New York's Luxury Real Estate in Useful Idiots
Oscar heavyweights Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver team up in Joseph Cedar’s New York-set thriller Useful Idiots, plunging into the shark tank of Manhattan luxury real estate where deals and loyalties are priced to kill.
Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver in the same movie? That is a flex. The two legends are teaming up for a New York thriller called 'Useful Idiots' from director Joseph Cedar, who you might know from 'Norman', 'Footnote', and the Apple series 'Constellation'. The title is spicy, the premise is very Manhattan, and it sounds like the kind of story that starts with a glossy real estate listing and ends with a bunch of powerful people very upset.
What the movie is actually about
Streep is playing Diane Castle, a veteran reporter stuck covering luxury properties in New York. She is tired of writing nice things about rich people and wrestling with the idea that she never quite hit her ceiling. Then a record-shattering penthouse sale lands on her desk. One simple question about who really bought it pulls her into a bigger, messier story: an elusive oligarch with reach all over Manhattan, protected by fixers, enablers, and a razor-sharp young strategist. Diane keeps digging past her comfort zone, and the deeper she goes, the more it turns into a corruption-and-consequences thriller that puts her, her family, and anyone near her in the blast radius.
Weaver is co-leading, but her role has not been revealed yet. Given the setup, there are a lot of juicy possibilities for where she fits in that power web.
Who is making it
- Director: Joseph Cedar
- Writers: Joseph Cedar and Shachar Bar-On (a 60 Minutes producer)
- Financing/Production: Fifth Season
- Producers: Closer Media partners Zhang Xin and Jonathan King, Bruce Cohen (yes, the Oscar winner), and William Horberg
- Executive Producers for Fifth Season: Graham Taylor, Christopher Slager, and Dan Guando
Where else you are about to see them
Streep just stepped back into Miranda Priestly for 'The Devil Wears Prada 2'. The sequel brings back Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt, and adds Kenneth Branagh, Justin Theroux, Stanley Tucci, Lucy Liu, and Lady Gaga. This time, Miranda is nearing retirement while squaring off with Emily Charlton, her former assistant turned rival executive, as they battle for advertising dollars in a print world that is shrinking fast. That dynamic alone is enough to sell tickets.
Weaver has a packed slate on the James Cameron front: she recently wrapped 'Avatar: Fire and Ash', with 'Avatar 4' in post and 'Avatar 5' currently shooting. On top of that, she is playing Colonel Ward in the Star Wars film 'The Mandalorian and Grogu', which is set for theaters on May 22, 2026.
Bottom line: a New York media-versus-money thriller with Streep and Weaver is the kind of adult drama we do not get enough of. If Cedar sticks the landing, this could be catnip for anyone who loves when a seemingly small beat reporter story turns into a monster.