Where to watch Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Trivia & production notes

• Taika Waititi's mother introduced him to Christine Leunens' 2008 novel Caging Skies in 2010, which inspired him to develop Jojo Rabbit as a film adaptation.
• Waititi drew inspiration from learning that 66% of American millennials had never heard of Auschwitz, hoping the film would ensure victims' memories remained preserved.
• The original screenplay draft for Jojo Rabbit did not include the Hitler character, but Waititi rewrote the entire script to add him and introduce more comedy.
• The screenplay landed on the Black List of top unproduced scripts in 2012, which helped generate industry interest after Waititi struggled to pitch the concept to studios.
• Waititi initially planned to film in Berlin but moved production to the Czech Republic due to German restrictions on working hours with minors, who could only work three hours per day.
• The casting team reviewed approximately 1,000 audition tapes before selecting Roman Griffin Davis, who had initially auditioned for Ford v Ferrari before also trying out for Jojo Rabbit.
• Roman Griffin Davis joined the project only six weeks before filming began, making him one of the last actors cast despite being the film's lead.
• Thomasin McKenzie created the character of Elsa Korr largely by herself, with Waititi providing minimal direction beyond asking her to watch Heathers as reference for the character's personality.
• Fox Searchlight Pictures made the film contingent on Taika Waititi personally portraying Adolf, which he reluctantly agreed to despite feeling embarrassed while on set.
• Waititi deliberately avoided researching Hitler in depth, stating he did not believe the historical figure deserved that level of effort for his satirical portrayal.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Jojo Rabbit, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.