Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet in Talks to Star in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women

Greta Gerwig has proven she’s a directorial force to be reckoned with, even if she didn’t snag the Oscar for Lady Bird.

Her next project will be a film adaption of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel, Little Women, and it appears she’s recruiting some heavy star power to fill out her cast. Lady Bird actors Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, as well as Hollywood titans Meryl Streep and Emma Stone, are in talks to star in the film, Variety reports.

In Lady Bird, a hard-headed Ronan played the title character, who willfully protests her birth name, Christine, while the hunky Chalamet acted as her bad-boy beau. Chalamet, Oscar-nominated for his star turn in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, is also catching attention for his forthcoming role opposite Steve Carell in the father-son flick Beautiful Boy. Streep, of course, continues to maintain her status as the greatest actress/person of all time and second greatest singer of ABBA songs with her forthcoming movie, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Columbia Pictures has the rights to Gerwig’s Little Women adaptation. Specific roles and details (like a release date) haven’t surfaced yet, but several actresses are scheduled to test with Stone for the role of Beth sometime next week, says Variety. Little Women follows the Massachusetts-bound March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—as they navigate love and adolescence during the Civil War.

PBS premiered a televised adaptation of Little Women earlier this year, which we at Paste hailed as a classic. Read our review of the special here, then revisit our review of Gerwig’s near-flawless directorial debut, Lady Bird.