Scarlett Johansson to Play Zelda Fitzgerald in Film

Amagansett’s Scarlett Johansson is reportedly attached to star in The Beautiful and the Damned, in which she’ll play iconic writer Zelda Fitzgerald. While the title is a reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel of the same name, the film will actually be a romantic drama about the writers’ tumultuous relationship and marriage.

The Fitzgeralds lived in Great Neck, but have a significant (if not widely known) connection to the Hamptons. F. Scott was a friend of Gerald Murphy and Sara Wiborg, two Hamptonites who became the basis for the characters of Dick and Nicole Driver in his novel Tender Is the Night.

While Johansson’s involvement is tentative, the script sounds so tantalizing we can’t imagine an actor letting a role like this go. In the meantime, Johansson is keeping very busy. She most recently starred in Hail, Caesar! And The Jungle Book, and she’ll next be seen in Captain America: Civil War. Johansson is currently filming Ghost in the Shell, a live-action adaptation of the popular anime. Ghost in the Shell recently ran into some controversy, with some fans complaining that a Japanese person should have been cast in Johansson’s role

Johansson has also lent her voice to 12 episodes of Live from Prince Street, a new Dean & DeLuca podcast hosted by Howie Kahn. For the foodie variety show, which features Water Mill’s Jay McInerney as a regular guest, Johansson reads teaser monologues and links segments.