Josh Gad is set to star in Gerron’s Last Film, a forthcoming movie based on the true story of Jewish actor and director Kurt Gerron, Deadline reports. Simon Curtis (Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale) is directing from a screenplay by Ehud Lavski and Alon Gur Arye.
Gad will play the famed actor, who served as the original performer of the song Mack the Knife during the 1928 premiere of Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera in Berlin. When Hitler came to power, Gerron refused to leave the country, unlike his friends Marlene Dietrich and Fritz Lang.
Gerron’s Last Film follows the artist after being sent to Theresienstadt (Terezin), a Jewish ghetto, where he was forced to make a propaganda film by the camp commander Karl Rahm. With no choice but to comply, Gerron was required to paint the camp in a positive light, highlighting the “positive” conditions for the world to see.
The film, which is being produced by Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman Keren of Pie Films, will reportedly be shopped to buyers next month at Berlin’s European Film Market.
Onstage, Gad first came to national attention as the original Elder Cunningham, receiving a Tony nomination for his performance. He returned to Broadway in 2023 with Gutenberg! The Musical!, reuniting with his former co-star Andrew Rannells.
On screen, Gad starred in the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, Hulu’s horror-comedy series Little Monsters, and is the voice of Olaf in Disney’s Frozen and Frozen 2. He is currently working on the Spaceballs sequel, in which he is starring, producing, and co-writing, and also joined the voice cast for the animated musical Oh, the Places You’ll Go.
Photo Credit: Bruce Glikas
