Last week, the new Man of Steel was revealed. Today, it's the turn of The Iron Lady, the Margaret Thatcher biopic that marks the latest collaboration for Meryl Streep and her Mamma Mia! director, Phyllida Lloyd.

The film, written by Abi Morgan (Sex Traffic, Brick Lane), started shooting at the end of January. Jim Broadbent plays Denis Thatcher, with Olivia Coleman as their daughter, Carol, and Alexandra Roach and Harry Lloyd as the couple in younger days. Anthony Head is Geoffrey Howe, Richard E Grant plays Michael Heseltine, Julian Wadham is Francis Pym and Michael Pennington Labour leader Michael Foot. Roger Allam rounds off the cast as television journalist-turned-political strategist Gordon Reece.

The film is billed as the story of "a woman who smashed through the barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world. The story concerns power and the price that is paid for power, and is a surprising and intimate portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman."

Streep has welcomed the challenge of playing Britain's first female prime minister. "The prospect of exploring the swathe cut through history by this remarkable woman is a daunting and exciting challenge," she said. "I am trying to approach the role with as much zeal, fervour and attention to detail as the real Lady Thatcher possesses – I can only hope my stamina will begin to approach her own!"

The Iron Lady has already run into controversy. Last November it was revealed to be one of the last major beneficiaries of funding from the UK Film Council – a move some interpreted as a last-gasp snook cocked at the incoming Conservative-coalition government, which disbanded the UKFC shortly after winning power.

Thatcher's family were apparently appalled by the prospect of the film, said to involve the former prime minister reassessing her career with some regret after the death of her husband, and while suffering from dementia. "They think it sounds like some left-wing fantasy," a friend of the family was reported to have said.