Netflix Nabs ‘The Corrections’ Starring Meryl Streep With Series Order As Part Of Prestige Ramp-Up; Cord Jefferson Helms Par TV Studios Limited Drama

Another high-profile TV package has been won by Netflix in a competitive situation. The streamer has landed The Corrections, based on Jonathan Franzen’s bestselling 2001 novel, with three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep attached to star. Franzen is adapting his book, and Oscar winner Cord Jefferson (American Fiction, Watchmen) is directing all episodes of the limited drama from Paramount Television Studios, which has received a straight-to-series order.

At Netflix, The Corrections will be part of the prestige drama slate overseen by VP Nora Skinner. Building up that part of the portfolio has been a big priority for Netflix under Head of UCAN (U.S. and Canada) Scripted Series Jinny Howe who recruited Skinner from HBO in 2024.

Netflix’s prestige roster includes several series the streamer landed in bidding wars, Rabbit, Rabbit starring Adam Driver, which is headed into production; Enigma Variations starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson; So Far Gone, from writer Mark Bomback; Black Hole, based on Charles Burns’ graphic novels; Weather Girl starring Julia McDermott; and Thumblite, which is currently in limbo after showrunner changes.

Based on Franzen’s National Book Award-winning novel, The Corrections is a sharply comic portrait of a Midwestern family whose three unmoored adult siblings desperately resist their mother’s wish for one last Christmas together – each undone by the delusional ambitions that were supposed to save them from becoming their parents.

Streep (Don’t Look Up, Big Little Lies) will play the mother, Enid.
She executive produces with Franzen, Jefferson, Mark Roybal (Task, Mare of Easttown) and Paul Lee (Task, The Summer I Turned Pretty) for wiip; and former Paramount TV Studios President Nicole Clemens (Sexy Beast, Shantaram).

Netflix bought The Corrections from Paramount TV Studios, which is owned by Paramount, the company that recently outbid Netflix for Warner Bros.

For The Corrections, the roles were reversed, with Netflix outbidding Paramount+, among others. I hear PTVS pitched the project to its sibling streamer, which made an offer. HBO did not, having developed its own take on Franzen’s book a decade and a half ago, sources said.

The streaming-focused PTVS was formed after last August’s Skydance-Paramount Global merger to supply Paramount+ and outside platforms.

This marks the second Netflix series order for a series that originated at the now-defunct Paramount TV Studios under Clemens, along with the upcoming Little House On the Prairie reboot, which already has been renewed for a second season.

The Corrections, Little House On the Prairie and the rest of PTVS’ slate moved to sibling CBS Studios after the label was shut down in August 2024. When the PTVS moniker was resurrected after Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global for a new production unit combining the assets of Skydance Television, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, Nickelodeon live-action and Awesomeness, the majority of the old PTVS slate that had migrated to CBS Studios, including The Corrections, reverted back to the new PTVS. (A handful of PTVS projects that had moved further along while at CBS Studios, including Little House on the Prairie and Apple TV+’s Murderbot, stayed there.)

This is the latest competitive TV project to go to Netflix over the past several months as the streamer has been aggressive about filling its pipeline. It joins Next Door, starring Tessa Thompson, as well as a few that Netflix won with straight-to-series orders: Rabbit, Rabbit; So Far Gone; Joshua Zetumer’s spec Pagans; Black Hole; and Trigger Point, starring Joel Edgerton.

HBO in 2012 ordered a pilot for The Corrections from Noah Baumbach, Franzen and Scott Rudin, who had been developing the book adaptation for a decade, originally as a feature. The pilot, which featured an all-star cast of Chris Cooper, Dianne Wiest, Ewan McGregor, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans and Greta Gerwig, did not go forward.

In addition to The Corrections, PTVS produces Netflix’s popular comedy series Emily In Paris and XO, Kitty. The streamer also recently nabbed U.S. streaming rights to the studio’s Paramount+ series from Taylor Sheridan, The Mayor of Kingstown.

This marks Streep’s third lead role in a limited series. She won an Emmy for both previous ones, NBC’s Holocaust and HBO’s Angels In America. She has received Supporting Actress Emmy nominations for her other two major series roles to date, on HBO’s Big Little Lies (drama) and Hulu’s Only Murders In the Building (comedy).

In features, Streep next is reprising her Oscar-nominated role as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is being released May 1. She is repped by CAA and Gendler, Kelly & Cunningham.

Jefferson, an Oscar and BAFTA Award winner for his American Fiction screenplay, won a Writing for a Limited Series Emmy for Watchmen, shared with Damon Lindelof. He is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and Ziffren Brittenham.

Franzen is repped by Rich Green at The Gotham Group, Susan Golomb at Writers House, and lawyer Alex Kohner.

Via: Deadline