Actor Yigal Naor has been cast in an American film, "Rendition," with shooting to begin in Morocco in about two weeks. He will appear with Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal. The director of the film, Gavin Hood, won an Oscar for the film "Tsotsi" in the Best Foreign Film category.

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The connection between the two began after Hood saw Steven Spielberg's film "Munich." In that film, Naor played an economics lecturer at the Sorbonne who is assassinated by the Israeli Mossad. Naor has also appeared in the French television series Djihad!, which is directed by Felix Olivier, a series that also impressed South African director Hood. From there to the phone call to Naor's agent Peri Kafri in Tel Aviv, the way was short. A few weeks ago Hod and Naor met in Israel and agreed on the role in the film. Naor will play a secret police chief in charge of interrogating a foreign citizen in an Arab country. Naor is an actor with a very impressive stage presence. He is currently appearing in two major roles in Habimah stage productions, "Antigone" and "Nudnik." Naor joined the cast of "Antigone," a joint production with the Cameri Theater, at a late stage of rehearsal, in the leading role of King Creon, after originally cast Rami Heuberger resigned from the production. Naor's replacement in this role will be Yigal Sadeh. Apparently, after the filming is completed, the two will continue to alternate in the role. In the play "Nudnik," oddly enough, Heuberger will replace Naor.