Gal Gadot has really taken this Wonder Woman thing to heart, using her newfound celebrity to tell stories of real-life women whose exploits can best be described as superheroic. Not only does she have a Showtime event series on the way centered on actress and groundbreaking inventor Hedy Lamarr, but now she’s turned her attention to a big screen project about Polish activist Irene Sendler, whose exploits during WWII are the stuff of legend.
Gadot will produce and star in Irene Sendler, with the actress playing the woman whose tireless efforts helped rescue 2500 children escape the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust. Her activities as part of the Polish Underground made her a target of the Gestapo, who arrested her in 1943 but not before she hid the names of everyone she had rescued. Sendler was due to be executed but was rescued on the day it was to be carried out. Sendler resumed her activities shortly after, and died in 2008 at the age of 98.
Irene Sendler will be penned by Justine Juel Gillmer, who is also writing the upcoming WWII boxing drama Harry Haft starring Ben Foster and directed by Barry Levinson.
I like what Gadot is doing here, and hope that these noteworthy projects are successful enough that she can continue to develop them long after her run of DC Comics movies are done. [Deadline]
