Los Angeles: Actor Daniel Bruhl will star opposite Jessica Chastain in "The Zookeeper's Wife".
The film is based on the 2007 best-seller by Diane Ackerman that is set in 1939 in Poland on the eve of the Warsaw Ghetto being established, said The Hollywood Reporter.
Niki Caro will direct the drama that chronicles the true story of Antonina Zabinska (Chastain) and her husband Dr Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo.
The couple used the zoo to help approximately 300 Jews escape from the Warsaw Ghetto after the Germans invaded Poland.
Bruhl, 37, will play Lutz Heck, Hitler's chief zoologist, who took over the Zabinskis' zoo in Warsaw and fell in love with, and then terrorised Antonina. Actor Johan Heldenbergh will play Zabinski.
Angela Workman has adapted the screenplay. Bruhl's recent credits include "Woman in Gold and Rush", for which he received a supporting actor Golden Globe nomination. He will next appear in "Burnt" opposite Bradley Cooper.
