Scarlett Johansson Makes Her First Major Move Into Television
She’ll star in and produce an adaptation of Just Cause, one of the first films she worked on as a child actor.
In 1995, 10-year-old Scarlett Johansson starred alongside Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw in Just Cause, playing the pair’s sweet daughter in the film adaptation of John Katzenbach’s crime thriller novel of the same name. Now, the 38-year-old, two-time Oscar nominee and Hollywood icon is returning to her roots, starring in and executive producing a new television adaptation of the novel for Amazon Studios, per Deadline.
In the 1995 film, Connery plays a man trying to overturn the conviction of a death row inmate (Blair Underwood) he believes has been framed for a murder actually committed by a serial killer (Ed Harris). In the new series, Johansson will take on the male lead role herself, which will be rewritten as Madison “Madi” Cowart (from the book’s original Matt).
Christy Hall, the co-creator of the Sophia Lillis-starring coming-of-age comedy I Am Not Okay With This and the Dakota Johnson-fronted Daddio, will write the project. The rest of the cast is yet to be rounded out, but Johansson’s involvement bodes well for the addition of some other marquee names.
The series also marks Johansson’s first major foray into television (in the past, she’s played Ivanka Trump on SNL and made a cameo as herself on Entourage). As arguably one of the few true film stars left, her move into TV is further proof that television roles hold more prestige than ever before.
Last month, Johansson reflected on her prolific career on Dax Shephard’s Armchair Expert podcast, saying that being overly objectified throughout her working life left her feeling like she’d been relegated to a certain type of role. “Everybody thought I was older and that I’d been [acting] for a long time. I got pigeonholed into this weird hypersexualized thing,” Johansson said. “I felt like [my career] was over. It was like: that’s the kind of career you have, these are the roles you’ve played. And I was like, ‘This is it?’”
It seems, however, that Johansson has found a way through, embarking on this act of her career on her own terms. Following the smash success of 2021’s Black Widow, 2023 is poised to to be a big year for her: she’ll appear in Wes Anderson’s star-studded Asteroid City alongside Margot Robbie, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Hanks; play a Royal Navy captain opposite Sienna Miller in Kristin Scott Thomas’s directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding, and star in Greg Berlanti’s space drama Project Artemis with Channing Tatum.
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