Josh Gad to star as Jewish director forced to make Nazi propaganda

Josh Gad to star in Holocaust drama ‘Gerron’s Last Film’

LOS ANGELES — Josh Gad is set to star in the upcoming historical drama “Gerron’s Last Film,” a project directed by Simon Curtis that chronicles the harrowing true story of Kurt Gerron, a renowned Jewish actor and director in pre-Nazi Germany.

The film follows Gerron’s journey after he famously refused to flee his home country, leading to his eventual imprisonment at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. While there, the camp’s commander forced him to direct a propaganda film designed to trick the international community by depicting “luxurious” conditions within the camp.

Gerron was forced to navigate the production of his final film while secretly attempting to capture moments of humanity for his fellow prisoners.

Production is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2026. Pie Films is producing the project, which features a screenplay by Ehud Lavski and Alon Gur Arye.

Gad, who recently completed work on “Spaceballs 2” and “Zootopia 2,” called the project an important story that must be told.

CAA Media Finance and WME Independent will represent the film’s domestic distribution rights. Rocket Science is slated to handle international sales at the upcoming European Film Market.

SAIGON SENTINEL ANALYSIS

"Gerron’s Last Film" interrogates a perennial and weighty theme: the mandate and liability of the artist under autocratic rule. The narrative of Kurt Gerron poses a fundamental question regarding the viability of creative integrity when art is coerced into the service of state-sanctioned propaganda. Forced to operate within a machinery of deception, Gerron’s attempt to embed fragments of truth and humanity into a landscape of lies reflects a tragic friction between the instinct for survival and professional ethics.

The casting of Josh Gad—an actor largely defined by comedic roles and commercial voice work—represents a bold strategic pivot. This role marks a significant career inflection point, demanding a psychological depth and dramatic range far removed from his established portfolio. The sharp contrast between Gad’s public persona and the haunting gravity of Gerron’s character offers a potent cinematic subversion, provided the execution meets the demands of the material.

In the geopolitical context of 2026, characterized by the persistent use of disinformation and narrative manipulation as tools of statecraft, Gerron’s story carries heightened relevance. The film functions as more than a historical retrospective on the Third Reich; it serves as a contemporary warning on the fragility of objective truth and the ease with which creative expression can be weaponized by power.

The themes of state-sanctioned art and the plight of artists under authoritarian regimes resonate deeply within the Vietnamese-American community, particularly for those who lived through the war and the subsequent upheavals in Vietnam. This narrative of suppressed expression strikes a visceral chord in places like Little Saigon, where memories of censorship are still shared over bowls of phở or during quiet moments in nail salons. For a diaspora built on the quest for freedom—whether families were reunited through F2B sponsorships or arrived via H-1B, EB-5, or TPS pathways—the struggle for creative and political liberty remains a defining part of the collective identity. These stories bridge the gap between the historical tragedies of the homeland and the modern Vietnamese-American experience, honoring a legacy of resilience that persists long after the initial journey to the West.