Stephen Frears would direct the film about the opera singer, who was also the basis for the Broadway play-with-music Souvenir, which starred Tony winner Judy Kaye.
The London paper also reports that Hugh Grant is in talks to play the opera singer's manager.
Jenkins, who was an eccentric society woman, believed she was a great soprano, although the opposite was true. Despite her lack of talent, Jenkins' charity recitals in such venues as the Ritz Carlton Hotel brought her much fame. Jenkins often mistook audiences' muffled laughter for cheers, and over 2,000 people were turned away from her Carnegie Hall concert in the mid 1940's.
Streep will be seen this winter as The Witch in the film version of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods.
