Angelina Jolie in Talks to Join Kenneth Branagh in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Remake
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- Published on Friday, 10 June 2016 03:55
- Written by Broadway World
According to The Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye, Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is currently in talks to join Kenneth Branagh in a new big screen adaptation of Agatha Cristie's iconic detective novel MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. Branagh will star and direct.Should she sign on, Jolie would take on the role of Harriet Hubbard.Michael Green pens the screenplay which follows detective Hercule Poirot as he investigates the murder of a wealthy American on a train.Christie's detective novel, first published in 1934, was brought to the big screen in 1974. The film featured an all-star cast, including Albert Finney,Martin Balsam and George Coulouris.Branagh most recently directed Disney's live action CINDERELLA, which delivered $532.7 million worldwide. Previous directing credits include HENRY V, JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, MARILYN AND ME and THOR.Branagh, who just started his own theatre company, has long been lauded as one of the great Shakespearean interpreters. His skills as a writer, director, and actor have garnered international acclaim across the disciplines of stage, film, and television, and he has been nominated in five different categories for an Academy Award. Branagh last performed Shakespeare when he played Richard III at the Sheffield Crucible in 2002. His stage performances as Edmund at The National Theatre and Ivanov for the Donmar played to great acclaim. In 2011, Branagh completed a sell-out run of the hit comedy The Painkiller at the Lyric Theatre in his native Belfast. In 2013 he received a Knighthood for his services to drama and to the community in N. Ireland.
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Angelina Jolie Confirmed to Return for 'Maleficent 2'!
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- Published on Tuesday, 26 April 2016 04:08
- Written by Just Jared
Angelina Jolie Pitt is officially returning to star as the villainous Maleficent in the sequel to the 2014 film.It was announced that the actress would be returning months ago, but the news was just confirmed by Disney as they announced a whole slate of upcoming movies.Disney has staked out several release dates including July 28, 2017, April 6, 2018, August 3, 2018, December 25, 2018, and December 20, 2019. It is not officially known when Maleficent 2 will be released, though IMDB has May 9, 2017 listed.Also returning to the Maleficent franchise is Linda Woolverton, who wrote the script for the first film and will take on the duties again.
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Cleopatra remake gets new writer, Angelina Jolie still attached
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- Published on Thursday, 07 April 2016 04:59
- Written by Flickering myth
Deadline is reporting the long-gestating remake of classic epic Cleopatra has scored a new writer to help bring the story back to the big screen.David Scarpa (The Day The Earth Stood Still) has signed on to the project, which is based on the bestselling book Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. Producers Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal are behind the film, which has Angelina Jolie (By The Sea) still attached to play the title character.A new version has been in the offing for many years, with both James Cameron (Avatar) and David Fincher (Gone Girl) at one time or another attached to direct.The two most famous versions of Cleopatra were released in 1934 and 1963 respectively: the earlier version starred Claudette Colbert and Warren William, with the latter starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, which – despite its famous production problems that closed the doors of 20th Century Fox for a time – went on to gross $55 million, or around $584 million adjusted for inflation.
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Angelina Jolie jokes with crew while finishing up on her documentary in Cambodia
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- Published on Thursday, 03 March 2016 04:39
- Written by Daily mail
Ready to wrap! Angelina Jolie is in her element as she jokes with crew while finishing up work on her documentary in Cambodia .She may be a serious artist, but that doesn't mean the work environment has to be.And while wrapping up the filming of her latest movie in Cambodia the 40-year-old could be seen looking to be in good spirits as she joked with her cast and crew.The director seems to have formed a tight-knit bond with her crew after three months of filming her Khmer Rouge epic First They Killed My Father.The documentary - adapted from Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung’s 2000 memoir - is moving into its final stages. Angelina, who sported a fitted, white, spaghetti strap dress with a flowing skirt, proudly displayed her extensive new back tattoos as she shared jokes and issued orders for filming a refugee camp scene at the foot of the Kulen Mountain in the Siem Reap province.The Oscar winner also shielded herself from the sun with a tan, wide-brimmed hat, as she could be seen gesturing while giving orders to the crew.And the star was later spotted donning a flowing, strapless white sundress as she enjoyed a day poolside as the movie came closer to wrapping.The movie features a largely Cambodian cast and crew, but Angelina has also hired a team of trusted British and American movie-makers as producers, camera operators, and in other high up positions, to ensure the movie is completed to the highest standard.'Angelina takes her movie-making very seriously,' an on-set insider said, adding: 'Some of it has been tough, make no mistake.' 'Cambodia is a third world country, and Angelina's been dealing with a largely Khmer cast and crew - things don't run as smoothly as on a huge Hollywood production.' 'There was a hiccup around December where some of the crew weren't working out and were subsequently sent home, but they were replaced and the team have been getting on incredibly well since,' the source added.
Angelina has also been getting some extra help on set in the form of her sons Maddox, 14, and Pax, 12, who have been on-hand during the shoot to help out with various production tasks, while Pax has also been taking photos to document the movie-making process. Angelina has also been immersing herself in the local Buddhist culture while in Cambodia, visiting temples and accompanying her six children – who also include Zahara, 11, Shiloh, nine, and seven-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne – as they learn about the culture and customs of their new country.In another show of her belief in the mysticism of South East Asia, Angelina's latest artworks, by her regular tattoo artist Ajarn Noo Kampai, whom she flew in from Bangkok to tattoo her, were on display at the set.Angelina has had a number of ancient Buddhist symbols and mantras on her back in a five-row form and a pyramid, symbols to give her power and help protect her family, according to experts able to decipher their meaning. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is set to debut on streaming service Netflix later in 2016.
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Angelina Jolie returns to Cambodia as director
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- Published on Thursday, 18 February 2016 05:06
- Written by TDN
Between bites of spicy Cambodian curry and fried fish with rice, Angelina Jolie Pitt explains how this tiny country with a tumultuous past changed the course of her life.She first visited Cambodia 16 years ago to portray "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" — the gun-toting, bungee-jumping, supremely toned action hero that made her a star. Soon after, she adopted her first child from a Cambodian orphanage and returned again and again on humanitarian missions. Now, she's back for another movie but this time as a director, and the subject matter is a far cry from Lara Croft."First They Killed My Father," is based on a Khmer Rouge memoir written by survivor Loung Ung that recounts the 1970s Cambodian genocide from a child's perspective. The film, which she is directing and co-wrote with Ung for Netflix, is in Khmer, with an all-Cambodian cast and according to Jolie Pitt "the most important" movie of her career. During a break from filming, she talked to The Associated Press about how, more than ever, she feels a satisfying symbiosis between her life and work.In person, Jolie Pitt is engaging and down-to-earth, dressed in a T-shirt and long black skirt, her hair pulled into a casual bun. She goes out of her way to play down her celebrity, hopping into the back of an SUV and squeezing into the middle seat beside a reporter for a short drive from the set to the crew's outdoor lunch tents. She is relaxed and articulate as the conversation veers from acting and directing, to history, humanitarian work, motherhood and her special relationship to Cambodia."When I first came to Cambodia, it changed me. It changed my perspective. I realized there was so much about history that I had not been taught in school, and so much about life that I needed to understand, and I was very humbled by it," said the 40-year-old Jolie Pitt, who grew up in Los Angeles where she felt "a real emptiness." She was struck by the graciousness and warmth of Cambodian people, despite the tragedy that left an estimated 2 million people dead. While shooting Lara Croft in 2000, some scenes required sidestepping land mines, she said, which made her aware of the dangers refugees face in countries ravaged by war. "That trip triggered my realization of how little I knew and the beginning of my search for that knowledge."
It prompted her to contact the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to learn about the agency's work before joining as a goodwill ambassador in 2001. She was then given an expanded role as Special Envoy in 2012.It was during an early trip back to Cambodia with the U.N. that Jolie had another epiphany — this time about motherhood."It's strange, I never wanted to have a baby. I never wanted to be pregnant. I never babysat. I never thought of myself as a mother," Jolie, now famously a mother of six, says with a laugh. But while playing with children at a Cambodian school, "it was suddenly very clear to me that my son was in the country, somewhere."She adopted Maddox in 2002, and a year later opened a foundation in his name in northwestern Battambang province, which helps fund health care, education and conservation projects in rural Cambodia.Maddox is now 14 and sporting what his mom calls "a blonde stripe" — a shaggy mohawk with the top dyed blonde. He joined her in Cambodia to help behind the scenes for the project that she sees as a unique merger of her film work and family with humanitarian interests."For me, this is the moment, where finally my life is kind of in line, and I feel I'm finally where I should be," Jolie Pitt said.Her fondness for Cambodia is mutual, according to the country's most celebrated filmmaker Rithy Panh, who says "First They Killed My Father" will be the first Hollywood epic filmed in Cambodia about the country's genocide — a sign that the government trusts her to respectfully revisit the horrors of the past."I don't think they authorized Hollywood to come here. They authorized Angelina Jolie. It's not the same. She is special. She has a special relationship with the Cambodian people. There is a mutual respect," said Panh, her co-producer."I wonder if she's not a reincarnated Cambodian," he laughed, then thought about it. "Maybe. Maybe in a previous life she was Cambodian."She expects to return to hold the film's premiere in Cambodia at the end of the year, before its release on Netflix.
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