Nominated 13 times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, more than anyone else in history, Meryl Streep is taking her penchant for standout performances as strong, decisive women to new heights -- and, if all goes according to plan, a 17th nod from the Academy.
Streep plays former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the upcoming film, "The Iron Lady." Directed by "Mama Mia!" helmer Phyllida Lloyd, the film follows Thatcher's rise to power in the late seventies to become the first and only woman Prime Minister in Britain's history. An arch conservative Tory, her reign was a divisive one, drawing protests from the left and accolades from the right.
Due out December 16th, the film is being distributed by The Weinstein Company, two facts that, along with its star and very serious material, perhaps already make it an Oscar front-runner -- despite the fact that we've only now just seen the first teaser trailer from the film.
Revealed during the morning show, "BBC Breakfast," here's a first look at the film; watch it below the synopsis:
THE IRON LADY is a surprising and intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep), the first and only female Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. One of the 20th century's most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male dominated world.