John Wells will direct the motion picture, which will feature a screenplay penned by Letts. Streep would play the role of the pill-popping Violet with Roberts as her daughter Barbara.
Harvey Weinstein and Jean Doumanian will produce. Filming is expected to begin in summer 2011.
August: Osage County, according to previous press notes for the play, "is the grand and gripping tale of the Weston family, a large extended family that comes together at their Oklahoma homestead after the disappearance of the family patriarch. Forced to confront unspoken truths and astonishing secrets, the clan must also contend with matriarch Violet, a pill-popping, deeply unsettled woman at the eye of the storm."
The acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company production — which runs three acts and three-and-a-half hours — won the Best Play Tony Award in 2008, and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Anna D. Shapiro also won the Best Direction Tony, and Deanna Dunagan was named Best Actress. The play opened on Broadway Oct. 30, 2007, at the Imperial after a world premiere by Steppenwolf in Chicago. It moved next door, to the Music Box, to make way for Billy Elliot.