Leviathan Productions is developing the book “Henry Ford’s War on the Jews” as a film

EXCLUSIVE: Amidst the ongoing tragedy of the war between Israel and Hamas, Leviathan Production began development of a feature film adaptation of Henry Ford’s war against the Jews and the legal fight against hate speecha historical work by Victoria Saker Woeste.

The film tells the story of car pioneer Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic campaign in the 1920s. In 1925, Aaron Sapiro, a self-made lawyer and activist, sued Ford for libel. After a dramatic legal battle that gripped the nation, Sapiro forced Ford to close his anti-Semitic paper. The Dearborn Independentand publicly apologize to the Jewish people.

Stanford University Press published Henry Ford’s War on the Jews in 2012. Jackie Krentzman brought the project to Leviathan and will serve as producer.

Ford, an industrial titan who made cars accessible to the American middle class through his Ford Motor Company, bought the newspaper in his hometown Independentin 1918 and had to close it in 1927. Known for his anti-Semitic views, he also spread conspiracy theory-based hate speech in the book. The International Jew: The World’s Biggest Problemwhich has been translated into several languages ​​and read on several continents.

“The story of Aaron Sapiro’s courageous fight against Henry Ford’s fanatical anti-Semitism and his newspaper’s slanderous tirades The Dearborn Independent is unfortunately as relevant today as it was a century ago,” Leviathan Productions co-founder and CEO Ben Cosgrove told Deadline. “This moment demands that we tell the stories of those who have courageously stood up against anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories and disinformation.”

An associate research professor at the American Bar Foundation and a historian of American law, Woeste’s areas of expertise include constitutional rights, religion, discrimination, and economic change. In addition to Henry Ford’s WarShe has written books including Jews and the Law And The benevolent trust of the farmer.

Founded by veteran filmmaker Cosgrove and best-selling author Josh Foer, Leviathan Productions is an independent production company focused on acquiring mass-market film and television content based on Jewish history, folklore and literature, and stories. about Israel.

Previous projects announced by the company include adaptations of Leonard Slater’s book The promise – focused on the true story of the men and women who led the underground effort in the United States to acquire and transport airplanes to Israel before the Revolutionary War – as well as the novel The secret agreement by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks on the rise and reign of Israel’s King David. An adaptation of her award-winning play by playwright Anna Ziegler has also already been announced Photo 51, which starred Nicole Kidman during its West End run. This project tells the story of Rosalind Franklin, the brilliant Jewish scientist who discovered the structure of DNA, but owed her discovery to Watson and Crick.

Most recently, the company announced a horror film based on the Golem legend that will be written by A chain of unfortunate events“Daniel Handler. Woeste’s deal was negotiated by Brandon Milostan at Greenberg Glusker.