Gal Gadot to Play Polish Heroine ‘Irena Sendler’ in Holocaust Drama

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot will produce and star in “Irena Sendler,” based on the Polish heroine who saved thousands of Jewish children during the Holocaust.

“Irena Sendler” has been set up with Warner Bros. through Gadot’s newly formed Pilot Wave with producing partner and husband Jaron Varsano. Marc Platt will also produce.

Justine Juel Gillmer, whose credits include “Harry Haft,” will be writing the screenplay, based on Sendler’s work in the Polish underground in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Sendler worked with dozens of others to smuggle out children, provide them with false identification and place them with families. She was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and tortured but never revealed any information about the children.

Gadot, a native of Israel, is also producing and starring in “Wonder Woman 1984,” which will open on June 5. She’s starring in Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile” as Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle in a sequel to “Murder on the Orient Express.” She is also starring
with Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in Netflix’s “Red Notice.”

Gadot and Versano are also developing “My Dearest Fidel” as a possible star vehicle for Gadot with Sue Kroll producing. That project is based on Peter Kornbluh’s Politico article “‘My Dearest Fidel’: An ABC Journalist’s Secret Liaison With Fidel Castro.”