 In 2007 , Streep was cast in four films . She portrayed a wealthy university patron in Chen Shi @-@ zheng 's much @-@ delayed feature drama Dark Matter , a film about a Chinese science graduate student who becomes violent after dealing with academic politics at a U.S. university . Inspired by the events of the 1991 University of Iowa shooting , and initially scheduled for a 2007 release , producers and investors decided to shelve Dark Matter out of respect for the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007 . The drama received negative to mixed reviews upon its limited 2008 release . Streep played a U.S. government official who investigates an Egyptian foreign national suspected of terrorism in the political thriller Rendition ( 2007 ) , directed by Gavin Hood . Keen to get involved in a thriller film , Streep welcomed the opportunity to star in a film genre for which she was not usually offered scripts and immediately signed on to the project . Upon its release , Rendition was less commercially successful , and received mixed reviews . 
