Meryl Streep Takes the Mic as an Award-Winning Singer in Cameron Crowe's Next Film

Meryl Streep is stacking music legends on her to-do list. While everyone was busy watching her snap back into Miranda Priestly mode in The Devil Wears Prada 2, another project got a very real, very public nudge forward: Streep is playing Joni Mitchell for Cameron Crowe.

The confirmation (and who confirmed it)

Clive Davis, of all people, is the one who said it out loud. At his annual pre-Grammy party, the veteran record exec told the room that Streep will star as Joni Mitchell in Crowe's long-developing, still-untitled biopic. Not exactly your standard casting press release, but a very music-industry way for the news to break.

So yes: Streep is Joni

Rumors first bubbled back in August 2025 that Streep was circling the role, with Anya Taylor-Joy reportedly playing the younger Joni. Now Davis has effectively stamped the older-Joni part as a done deal; Taylor-Joy's involvement is still in the reported column.

Crowe's Joni movie: what kind of biopic is this?

Crowe has been building this one with Mitchell for nearly five years. He told Stephen Colbert a while back that, at that point, they'd been at it about four years, meeting regularly so he could ask her anything. The goal isn't a distant, museum-glass portrait; it's meant to feel like you're seeing her life the way she saw it.

'This is from her perspective, her life, looking out.'

Helpful (and very Joni) detail: she has kept practically everything — clothes, costumes, instruments — and she still owns and rents out her famous Laurel Canyon house. You can basically feel the movie's production design high-fiving.

Mitchell, for the record

If you somehow need a refresher: Joni Mitchell is one of the most influential singer-songwriters ever, with staples like "Both Sides, Now," "Big Yellow Taxi," and the album "Blue." She just picked up her 11th Grammy, taking Best Historical Album, and the Recording Academy gave her the Lifetime Achievement Award back in 2002. She is 82 and still collecting hardware.

Meanwhile, in Prada land

Yes, that really was the first trailer for The Devil Wears Prada 2 that dropped — which makes the timing of the Joni reveal feel extra stacked for Streep fans. Two icons, very different wardrobes.

What we know so far

• Director: Cameron Crowe.
• Project: Untitled Joni Mitchell biopic.
• Confirmed casting: Meryl Streep as Joni Mitchell.
• Reported casting: Anya Taylor-Joy as younger Joni (not officially confirmed).
• Development: Nearly five years in the works; Crowe previously said they had been collaborating for about four years with regular, open-ended conversations.
• Approach: Personal, from Joni's POV; she has archived her clothes, costumes, and instruments and remains the landlady of her famed Laurel Canyon home.
• How it broke: Clive Davis announced it at his annual pre-Grammy party.