Gal Gadot is about to play a Holocaust survivor in an upcoming film, “Ruin.” The movie’s script, the debut script of cousins Kaz Firpo and Ryan Firpo, now known for their work on “Eternals,” topped the Black List — an annual survey of unproduced motion picture screenplays, compiled by the film industry and made public each year — back in 2017. Its logline read: “A nameless ex-Nazi captain navigates the ruins of post-WWII Germany. Determined to atone for his crimes during the war, he hunts down the surviving members of his former SS Death Squad.” Sounds a lot like “Abba” Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” but a bit less funny and a bit more gritty. Gadot’s character, a newly released Nazi camp prisoner, forms an alliance with the German soldier as they both seek revenge.
Gadot, who most recently starred in the controversial Disney “Snow White” live-action adaptation as the evil queen, was already attached to the movie back in 2017, with Justin Kurzel set to direct. Now the movie, which will be co-produced by Gadot and Varsano’s Pilot Wave Productions, has a new director, Niki Caro. She is the New Zealand director behind Jennifer Lopez’s “The Mother” and “Mulan.”
“Ruin” is Caro’s second Holocaust film. Her first, “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” based on a true story, featured another Israeli star as a Holocaust survivor. Shira Haas played Urszula, a young Jew rescued by the wife of the zookeeper of Warsaw, who along with her husband helped hide many of the city’s Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Polish capital. Haas, who was in the latest Captain America flick, was also present at Gadot’s recent Hollywood Walk of Fame Star unveiling ceremony.
Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts, once described as “the most versatile beefcake actor of our time,” is attached to play the unnamed “Captain.” Schoenaerts, known for his award-winning role in “Rust and Bone” and “The Danish Girl,” most recently starred in David O. Russel’s “Amsterdam” and the Kate Winslet-helmed show “The Regime.”
Production for “Ruin” is set to premiere in early 2026.
