Richard Osman has joked that he gets regular Facebook requests from Meryl Streep asking to be in the film adaptation of his book The Thursday Murder Club.
Sharing updates on the novel series, of which Osman is currently writing the third, he discussed the film’s production but said he does not know anything about who is being cast.
The best-selling book has been picked up by Steven Spielberg’s production company Amblin Entertainment and will be written and directed by Ol Parker.
“You’ve got four detectives, they’re all in their 70s,” Osman told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“So everyone shouts out Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Dame Judy Dench in the street at me all the time, so I can’t wait to see who they do go with.
“I get Facebook requests from Meryl Streep all the time, and it’s like ‘Meryl let it go, you’re American’.
“Can she do an English accent?”
Presenter Susanna Reid replied: “I think she’s quite good at accents.”
Agreeing, Osman added: “She is notoriously quite good.
“If Meryl Streep said she wanted to be in it I would not be saying no.”
The Pointless host said he does not have much influence on the production process and is happy to “get out of the way” of filmmakers and continue writing the third book.
“I think if you’ve got Steven Spielberg on board you probably leave it to him to make a film,” he said.
“With films it’s just not a world I’ve experienced… my only job is to get out of their way.
“I’ll get on with writing the third book and I’ll get on with selling this second book because that’s something that I have some control over.”
Osman said he intends to carry on writing “forever” and also hopes to continue hosting Pointless alongside Alexander Armstrong for as long as possible.
Asked who would be cast in a biopic about his own life, having gone from producer to broadcaster to host to international best-selling author, he said: “Dame Jude Dench can play me. Or Clooney.”
Setting the scene in the GMB interview, he said Hugh Jackman could play Ben Shephard, Julia Roberts could be Reid, with George Clooney as himself.