Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Scarlett Johansson Will Play German Mom Who Saves Jew From Nazis

(JTA) — Scarlett Johansson is in final negotiations to star in a film where she would portray a German mother who is hiding a Jewish girl in her home from the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Variety reported Thursday that Fox Searchlight’s film titled “Jojo Rabbit” is a follow-up to the action comedy “Thor: Ragnarok,” and centers on a young German boy who finds out about his mother’s heroism.

Johansson, who is Jewish, is now on board and the character of the son still needs to be cast.

Taika Waititi penned the script and will produce alongside Carthew Neal and Chelsea Winstanley. Production is expected to start this spring, Variety reported.

In Europe, the issue of rescue of Jews by non-Jews during the Holocaust is controversial. In Eastern Europe especially, government-led projects meant to highlight the actions of relatively few local rescuers has been criticized as designed to prevent an open discussion about the actions of countless thousands who collaborated with the German Nazis in the wholesale murder of Jews.

The film would mark a change of pace for Johansson, who has been focused on action and comedy movies, including last year’s “Ghost in the Shell” and the Sony comedy “Rough Night.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.