Scarlett Johansson Set To Star In Career First TV Series
Scarlett Johansson hasn’t worked in TV much, but that’s about to change in a big way. We already knew the Black Widow star was planning to ramp up the producer side of her career with Disney, but instead of Disney+ her new mini-series will be with Amazon Prime. She’ll be starring as the lead of Just Cause, based on the 1992 John Katzenbach novel of the same name.
Deadline reported on the development on Monday, saying that Scarlett Johansson will not only lead Just Cause but executive produce under her production company These Pictures. The novel being adapted is about newspaper editor Matt Cowart fighting to get a Death Row inmate freed, but in doing so the hero unintentionally sets a dangerous series of events in motion. Johansson will play a gender-swapped version of the protagonist–Madi Cowart instead of Matt.
In an interesting twist, it turns out Scarlett Johansson has already appeared in a Just Cause adaptation, and it was one of her very first credited screen roles. In 1995 the late Sean Connery (The Untouchables) starred in a film treatment of Just Cause, with the hero changed from a newspaper editor to Harvard professor Paul Armstrong. A 9-year-old Johansson (she was still 9 during filming in 1994) played Connery’s daughter, Katie Armstrong, in what was only her third screen credit; you can watch a clip of that performance below.
While it may not be Scarlett Johansson’s most well-remembered role, it certainly gave the young star the chance to rub elbows with some incredible talent. Along with Connery the cast of 1995’s Just Cause included Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Ed Harris (The Truman Show), Kate Capshaw (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), Blair Underwood (Deep Impact), and the late Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). There’s no word yet on the cast joining Johansson on the Amazon mini-series.
Christy Hall (I Am Not Okay With This) will write the Just Cause mini-series and executive produce alongside Scarlett Johansson. Hall seems to be a rising star behind the scenes, and Deadline mentions she’ll soon be making her feature directorial debut. Hall will write, direct, and produce the upcoming film Daddio starring Sean Penn (Mystic River) and Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey).
Along with her emerging producer credits, Scarlett Johansson still has some other big acting credits on the way. She’ll be part of the large ensemble cast of Wes Anderson’s upcoming dramedy Asteroid City. Her long list of co-stars includes Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), Jason Schwarztman (Rushmore), Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan), Adrien Brody (The Pianist), Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic World Dominion), and many more.
