Abigail Breslin will play Julia Roberts’ daughter in “August: Osage County”, according to Deadline. Meryl Streep plays the family matriarch and Juliette Lewis has also joined the cast (replacing Andrea Riseborough) of the big screen adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play.
Letts’ play follows one dysfunctional family in Oklahoma over the course of several weeks one summer as they come together in the wake of the father’s disappearance. Streep’s Violet is the pill-popping matriarch, while Roberts plays her oldest daughter Barbara, who’s separated from her husband. Lewis plays youngest daughter Karen, self-absorbed and willfully ignorant of the problems in her own life. Breslin’s Jean is 14 and already a pot-smoking rebel. John Wells will direct on location in Oklahoma this fall, and the rest of the large ensemble cast still needs to be assembled.
Breslin, one of the youngest Oscar nominees ever for her role in “Little Miss Sunshine” back in 2006, has had a somewhat patchy career since as she begins to traverse that awkward stage of transitioning from child to adult roles. She most recently appeared in Garry Marshall’s ensemble comedy “New Year’s Eve” and recently wrapped up a key supporting role in Gavin Hood’s adaptation of seminal sci-fi novel “Ender’s Game.” Indie flicks including horror “Final Girl” and comedy “Virgin Mary” are also on her horizon.
