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 victims of 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
University of Iowa shooting
University of Iowa shooting
Meryl Streep