The play is still in previews at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre, but writer Dan Gordon is already eyeing a film version of Irena’s Vow, and he’s got a particular star in mind: Scarlett Johansson. Gordon, author of the screenplays for movies such as Passenger 57, Wyatt Earp and The Hurricane, told The New York Times that initial overtures have been made to Johansson to play World War II heroine Irena Gut Opdyke in an independent feature film version that he plans to adapt and direct himself this fall.

Tovah Feldshuh is playing Irena on Broadway in a performance in which she shifts from an old woman narrating her own story to flashback scenes as an 18-year-old Polish Catholic teenager. During the German occupation of Poland, Irena was forced to work as head housekeeper for a prominent Nazi major. During her two years of service, she risked her life in order to save the lives of 12 Jewish refugees whom she secretly took under her care.

(more…)