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This Week in Gal Gadot: Viva Fidel!

The star turns producer in Cuba-themed biopic, and lands a leading role alongside The Rock

by
Liel Leibovitz
June 12, 2018
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Gal Gadot attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Gal Gadot attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Having defeated both General Ludendorff and Ares, the God of War, what else is a wonder woman to do? The answer, of course, is to put aside childish things like invisible planes and lassos of truth and focus on the truly mystical art of producing.

Last month, Gal Gadot launched her own production company, Kroll & Co., together with Wonder Woman producer Sue Kroll, and announced its debut project: a biopic of Lisa Howard, an American journalist who, practicing what one biographer called “intimate diplomacy,” served as a secret liaison between the American administration and Fidel Castro in the early 1960s. Anyone hoping for a breezy rom-com between a young reporter and a murderous tyrant, however, is in for a disappointment: The movie’s script will be written by Chris Brancato of Narcos fame, which means it’s likely to be a violent and nerve-racking thriller.

Gadot learned of Howard’s story from an article by historian Peter Kornbluh in Politico. “When I first read Peter’s article,” she told Variety, “I was entranced by his thrilling account of a complicated, fascinating woman in the midst of a high-stakes, real-life drama. I knew immediately that I had to be involved creatively with telling Lisa Howard’s story, and am thrilled to be producing this film with Sue.”

And who might play said complicated, fascinating woman and her high-stakes drama? Gadot didn’t say, but more than a handful of Hollywood gossips volunteered the loosely guarded rumor that the actress is eyeing the role for herself.

She’ll have to make time on her schedule: Earlier this week, news broke that Gadot is confirmed to star in a heist movie titled Red Notice, alongside Wonder Man Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The movie, which sparked a massive bidding war between Hollywood studios earlier this year before being fast-tracked in what industry watchers labeled the biggest deal of the year to date, is an action comedy, slated for distribution in the summer of 2020. This column can hardly wait.

Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.