World War II movies have never really fallen out of fashion—Hacksaw Ridge is now an Oscar nominated film (for Mel Gibson), and we’ve got Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk coming this summer. And now that the history lesson is looking more pertinent than ever, that subgenre’s probably not going to lose momentum anytime soon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Storyscape Entertainment has already lined up the WWII thriller The Garbo Network, which Oscar Isaac will both star in and produce.
The Ex Machina actor will play Juan Pujol Garcia, a real-life double agent who helped the Allies pull off the invasion of Normandy. The Barcelona-born Garcia tried to sign up with British forces, who basically laughed him out of the room. So, in the world’s most epic case of negging, he went over to the Germans, where he crafted a fake history as an agent and undermined their operations so effectively that the British couldn’t help but take notice, eventually offering him a job. Garcia’s code name was “Garbo,” and he built a network of fake sub-agents that bilked the Germans out of tons of money while also convincing them at the invasion of Normandy was actually taking place in Pas de Calais. Garcia has the dubious distinction of having earned an Iron Cross and an MBE.
There’s no director yet, but Storyscape’s Chuck Weinstock thinks the biggest piece of the puzzle is already in place with Isaac leading the film, telling THR “There are very few actors who can do both pathos and comic grandiosity. Oscar is one of them, and we feel very lucky to have him.” Let’s just hope The Garbo Network calls for at least one dance sequence.