Adam McKay and Joe Wright Talk Meryl Streep’s Improv in ‘Don’t Look Up’ and Shooting ‘Cyrano’ During the Pandemic

Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.

Long before he directed “Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy,” a movie that shaped the sensibility of 2000’s screen comedy to an immeasurable degree, Adam McKay was already schooled in the art of making people laugh. As a young man, the Denver-born McKay cut his teeth at venerated Chicago comedy institutions, like Second City, IO, and Upright Citizens Brigade.

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet seen “Don’t Look Up.”At the beginning of Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” Michigan State astronomy grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers that a comet is heading toward Earth, and will cause an extinction-level-event for the entire planet in a little over six months: something she duly reports to her professor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio).

David Wallace-Wells Guest ColumnistFor Variety‘s Writers on Writers, David Wallace-Wells pens a tribute to “Don’t Look Up” (screenplay Adam McKay).Parables are hard, which is why the best ones tend not to play like parables at all. Light comedy about the end of the world isn’t exactly easy, either, but “Don’t Look Up” delivers that, too.In retrospect, at least, we now know Adam McKay’s early movies were about much more than they seemed to be about at first.

Leonardo DiCaprio has been an outspoken environmental advocate for as long as he’s been famous. But while he’s produced documentaries, contributed millions to the cause through his foundation, sat on several relevant boards and even used his Oscar speech to talk about climate change, the topic has never overlapped with his acting work.It wasn’t for lack of trying: He just couldn’t find the right fit.

COVID-19 lockdowns, pandemic worries and career uncertainties, even the three-time Oscar winner temporarily couldn’t perform her craft while shooting her new comedy “Don’t Look Up.” Streep, 72, told Entertainment Weekly on Thursday that she “found it really hard” to stay focused doing filming. “I didn’t feel funny in the lockdown. When I would come in to shoot my stuff, [I’d] get out of the car and hadn’t spoken to anybody in three weeks,” the “Iron Lady” actress said.

Are filmgoers ready for Don’t Look Up? It’s a star-laden satire dealing with hot topics of the moment – everything from the climate crisis to media disarray and the firings of news anchors.

Leonardo DiCaprio was NOT a fan of Meryl Streep’s nude scene in their new film, Don’t Look Up, but it’s not for the reason you might think!

A difference of opinion. Meryl Streep may have been all for her character on Don’t Look Up appearing naked on screen, but director Adam McKay revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio wasn’t as onboard with the idea.

Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t want Meryl Streep stripping down in their film "Don’t Look Up." The claim was made by the film’s director, Adam McKay, who said the actor, 47, felt the actress, 72, was too much of an icon to go nude in front of cameras for the comedy. Streep stars as President Janie Orlean, who is seen naked from behind in one scene.

Adam McKay has made a name for himself as one of the premier filmmakers working today. It seems that once he made the jump from straight comedy to more satirical work with “The Big Short” and his more recent films, he’s become one of the biggest Oscar favorites each time he releases a film.

Meryl Streep’s character strips down in the new comedy “Don’t Look Up”, but if Leonardo DiCaprio had anything to say it would have never happened.

Don’t Look Up.Discussing the scene, the film’s director Adam McKay claimed that DiCaprio “had a problem” because he “views Meryl as film royalty”.Streep plays President Janie Orlean in the film, which also stars Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Rylance, Timothée Chalamet and more.“She is fearless,” McKay told The Guardian of Streep. “And yes, that is a body double.

“Don’t Look Up.”The film’s director, Adam McKay, made the declaration in a Sunday interview, saying DiCaprio, 47, believed Streep, 72, was too much of an icon to get nude on camera.In the film, the Oscar winner plays President Janine Orlean, who is seen naked from behind in one scene.

HBO’s newly released trailer for the show “Winning Time.” “Winning Time” will debut its 10-episode first season sometime next March.

New Yorker profile, with celebs like Anne Hathaway and Adam McKay calling the Emmy and SAG Award-winner on his “powerful intelligence and extraordinary sensitivity.”Strong was the subject of a lengthy and revealing New Yorker profile earlier this week that dug deep into his biography and career… and also provoked astonishingly intense, heavily divided reactions from Strong’s fans and friends, with some even declaring the profile a hit piece.Brian Cox, who plays Strong’s father on the HBO series,

(now ex-) friend Will Ferrell on the set of their 2013 comedy film, “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.”The “Don’t Look Up” director, 53, explained to the Hollywood Reporter in a profile about his career and was asked about his thoughts on “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ untimely death in October.