Sam Rockwell has landed a role in Jojo Rabbit alongside Scarlett Johansson.
The 49-year-old recently picked up the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, after delivering an impressive performance as a violent and racist police officer in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
His new project, directed by Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi, is a Nazi Germany satire about a young boy who longs to be part of the Hitler Youth but begins to gain a new perspective when he discovers a Jewish girl living in his attic.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sam will play a Nazi captain who runs a Hitler Youth camp, while Scarlett takes on the role of the boy’s mother, a woman who is secretly working for the Resistance.
Taika will portray an imaginary Hitler – who also happens to be the protagonist’s imaginary friend.
As well as starring and directing in the Fox Searchlight production, Taika is also serving as a producer in addition to his wife Chelsea Winstanley, and fellow New Zealand-based producer Carthew Neal, with production expected to begin in late spring (18).
Sam, who has previously starred in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Seven Psychopaths, recently wrapped up filming for Adam McKay’s Backseat, a film about former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, in which he plays President George W. Bush.
He also provides the voice of the title character in Disney’s live-action/CGI hybrid The One and Only Ivan, which also features the voices of Angelina Jolie and Bryan Cranston.
