Gal Gadot and Matthias Schoenaerts are to star in Ruin, a stark thriller set in the aftermath of the Second World War.
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot uniting with the director of Disney’s live-action Mulan, working from a script by the writers of Marvel’s Eternals. It might sound as though we’re in for something glossy and multiplex ready, but the forthcoming Ruin will almost certainly be the complete opposite.
Written by Matthew and Ryan Firpo and first appearing on the 2017 Blacklist of unproduced screenplays, Ruin is set in the aftermath of Word War II. Germany, like large sections of Europe, lies in tatters. Against a backdrop of shattered buildings, hunger and unrest, a former Nazi soldier embarks on a mission to wipe out his own SS death squad team. He’s joined by an unlikely ally: a Jewish concentration camp survivor named Elsa.
According to Deadline, Ruin is set to go into production next year, with Gadot playing Elsa and Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust And Bone) to co-star as a character simply named The Captain in the original script.
New Zealand filmmaker Niki Caro, whose work besides Mulan includes such dramas as North Country and The Zookeeper’s Wife and the 2023 action thriller The Mother, will direct. Released in 2017, The Zookeeper’s Wife was also a period drama set in and after World War II, though it was a far different affair from Ruin. Assuming Caro sticks to the script, the resulting Ruin film could be one of the more harsh and disturbing films about WWII to appear on the big screen in recent years.
Re-creating the shattered Germany described in that screenplay – ancient ruined cities, drunken Soviet soldiers and more horrors besides – could also be rather expensive to realise, though the presence of an A-lister like Gadot probably means that Ruin will be able to secure the budget it needs.
Production company MadRiver Pictures will be at Cannes in search of potential buyers at this month’s festival. Assuming all goes to plan, this could be a future movie well worth making a mental note about.
