Jeremy Strong, star of the HBO hit series Succession and recent first-time Oscar nominee, is set to play a Nazi hunter in a new adaptation of the conspiracy thriller novel The Boys from Brazil, according to a report from Deadline.
The Netflix series will be executive produced by The Crown showrunner Peter Morgan. Strong will play Yakov Liebermann, the lead character loosely based on real-life Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The role was previously portrayed by Laurence Olivier in a 1978 feature adaptation of the novel.
The story chronicles Liebermann's attempts to uncover a secret project launched by notorious Nazi officer Josef Mengele, who was nicknamed "the Angel of Death" due to his sinister experiments during the Holocaust. In the novel, Mengele has successfully planted dozens of genetic clones of Adolf Hitler in an attempt to rebuild the Third Reich.
The project may be intended as a contemporary political commentary. Strong received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Roy Cohn, a mentor to Donald Trump, in the film The Apprentice. Strong has referred to both Cohn and Trump as "monsters," and accusations that Trump and his political ally Elon Musk are "fascists" have been widespread among the president's detractors.
The previous adaptation of The Boys from Brazil was met with mixed reviews. Famed critics such as Pauline Kael and Gene Siskel panned the movie, with Siskel calling it "one of the phoniest stories you can imagine." Nonetheless, the Franklin J. Schaffner-directed film earned Oscar nominations for Olivier, editor Robert Swink, and composer Jerry Goldsmith.
Strong recently wrapped on the Bruce Springsteen project Deliver Me from Nowhere. He's also set to star in the James Gray crime thriller Paper Tiger, alongside Adam Driver and Anne Hathaway. And his appearance in a Dunkin' Super Bowl ad poked fun at his reputation for intense, method-style acting.
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