Paltrow says 'Ja' to Dietrich flick

Marlene Dietrich, Gwyneth Paltrow

Paltrow's involvement has received the thumbs-up from Dietrich's grandson, Peter Riva, who was quoted as saying the younger actress 'has the stillness required in an aristocrat, and the ability to plumb the depths of character without too much emotion, which was Marlene's trademark'.

Dietrich, who died in 1992 at age 90, was the highest-paid actress in pre-war Hollywood thanks to such films as The Blue Angel. During World War II, she directed all her energies into fighting the Nazis and even travelled to the front. She made her final movie in 1979, the critically panned David Bowie film Just a Gigolo.

There is no start date for the film. Paltrow has just given birth to a daughter, Apple, with her rock star husband Chris Martin of British band Coldplay. Paltrow, who won an Academy Award for the romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love, was most recently in movie theatres with the box office bombs Sylvia and View from the Top.