Angelina Jolie signs on to direct biopic 'Africa'
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- Published on Thursday, 29 January 2015 11:01
- Written by Inside Movies
Angelina Jolie has only just offered a first look at her next project By the Sea, and her upcoming biopic Unbroken hasn’t yet hit theaters. But already the busy actor/writer/producer/director has lined up her next project.Jolie has signed on to direct and produce Africa, which is written by Oscar-winner Eric Roth, whose last film was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close before he delved into television with projects like Luck and House of Cards.Africa is another biopic for Jolie, and will tell the story of Kenyan politician and paleoanthropoligst Richard Leakey, who battled with elephant poachers to protect the animal’s population in Africa. In the 1980s and 1990s, Leakey made it a priority to combat poachers while he served as the head of Kenya’s Wildlife Conservation and Management Department.Skydance Productions will be behind the film, which is a change of pace for the company currently producing Star Trek 3 and the Terminator franchise revival Terminator: Genisys.Unbroken, which tells the story of Olympic athlete Louis “Louie” Zamperini, who became a prisoner of war during World War II, will debut on Dec. 25. Unbroken‘s cinematographer Roger Deakins will join Jolie on Africa.
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First Look: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt swept away in romantic drama 'By the Sea'
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- Published on Tuesday, 16 September 2014 05:03
- Written by Inside Movies
“But no man moved me till the tide /
Went past my simple shoe /And past my apron and my belt /
And past my bodice too / And made as he would eat me up /
As wholly as a dew…” Whether or not this poem by Emily Dickinson, published under the title By the Sea, served as inspiration for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s new film of the same name, the spirit seems to match up with its story of a woman caught in an undertow of passion and rejuvenation while visiting a seaside village with her husband. By the Sea is the first onscreen collaboration between the newlyweds since they first met on 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Jolie not only stars but also wrote the screenplay and is directing and producing. Along with these exclusive images, Entertainment Weekly has the first details of the romantic drama, which has been kept under wraps until now. Although Pitt and Jolie just tied the knot themselves on Aug. 23 after a nearly decade-long relationship, this is how they’ll be spending their honeymoon—exploring a marriage that’s collapsing on itself.Set in France during the mid-1970s, Jolie plays Vanessa, a former dancer, and Pitt is her husband Roland, an American writer. As they travel the country together, they seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper (War Horse and A Prophet‘s Niels Arestrup, pictured below) and hotel owner (Richard Bohringer, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.) “I chose to set By the Sea in the 1970s, not only because it is a colorful and alluring era, but because it removes many of the distractions of contemporary life and allows the focus to remain squarely on the emotions that the characters experience in their journey,” Jolie said in a statement to EW.In other words, it was a time when it was still possible to escape your everyday life without so many methods of staying connected or distracted. In this story, she says a different kind of social networking takes place.As a kind of found-family is assembled amid these maritime dwellers, histories are shared—some joyful, some mournful—and the couple are swept up in their stories, changing the way they look at each other.
The film will be Jolie’s follow-up to the World War II-era survival drama Unbroken, due in theaters Dec. 25, and will be her third directing project since her debut with 2011’s In the Land of Blood and Honey.Universal Pictures will release the film, although no date has been set, and studio chairman Donna Langley said she signed on to make By the Sea after finding Jolie’s script so provocative. “I was struck by the fact that she and Brad are willing to bring such a brave endeavor to screen and take audiences on this raw, emotional journey that’s simultaneously of its moment and surprisingly timeless,” she said.Pitt will be co-producing the film with Jolie, and among the film’s other crew will be editor Patricia Rommel (The Lives of Others); production designer Jon Hutman (Unbroken); and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps). The executive producers are Chris Brigham (Inception), Holly Goline (Unbroken) and Michael Vieira (Unbroken).Cinematographer Christian Berger, an Oscar nominee for Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, said he will be employing mostly natural light for By the Sea, using the Cine Reflect Lighting System he developed to channel existing light using a series of reflectors that create a warmer, less distracting environment. “It changes the method of working on set for the director and the actors, and in this film enhances the period and atmosphere,” he told EW.The film began shooting in Malta on Sept. 8, and will continue through mid-November.
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will film 'crazy sex scenes' for their Malta-set romantic drama By The Sea
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- Published on Thursday, 28 August 2014 11:50
- Written by Daily Mail
They are due to begin shooting the love story By The Sea in a matter of days.And one on-set source has revealed that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will be doing much more than playing husband and wife in the 'intimate character-driven drama.'According to Us Weekly, the Oscar-winning lovebirds will film 'crazy sex scenes' for By The Sea, which the 39-year-old bride-to-be is directing and writing.Angelina and her 50-year-old fiancé will reportedly shoot the steamy segments down the street from where their family is staying in Malta.The colourful European country is located in the Mediterranean Sea just 50 miles South of Sicily.'They'll be filming in Mgarr ix-Xini Bay in Gozo,' an insider told the mag in July, adding their visit would last 10 weeks.Surrounded by high rocks, the secluded pebble beach offers clear waters which make it ideal for underwater photography.'It's not a big movie, it's not an action movie,' the Maleficent star - who's ready to retire from acting - told Extra in May.'It's the kind of movie we love but aren't often cast in. It's a very experimental, independent-type film where we get to be actors together and be really raw, open, try things.'The A-listers known as 'Brangelina' haven't acted together since the 2005 assassin comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which grossed $478 million at the box office.According to Brad's pal Frank Pollaro, the World War Z actor placed a self-imposed ban on shooting sex scenes with other actresses.'This is a guy who has tried not to do any sexy scenes with other women since he's met Angelina,' Pollaro told Esquire last year.'He's crazy about her, and she's the same way about him.'Pitt's last love scene was in 2008 with Cate Blanchett for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - after his sexy roles in Thelma & Louise, Troy, Meet Joe Black, and Fight Club.Meanwhile, Jolie hasn't simulated sex since 2004 with Ethan Hawke for Taking Lives after sexy roles in Gia, Original Sin, Beyond Borders, Pushing Tin, and Foxfire.'Angelina Jolie was born to whittle men, to make them weak, and when she kisses you, you don’t know your name,' Hawke said on Watch What Happens Live last year.The Hollywood power couple were last seen Friday landing their private jet at Nice Airport alongside their six children - Maddox, 13, Pax, 10, Zahara, 9, Shiloh, 8, and twins Knox & Vivienne, 6.Brad will next play 'Wardaddy' in WWII flick Fury - due out October 17 - with Shia LaBeouf, Scott Eastwood, and Michael Peña.And Angelina's second major directorial effort, a biopic on WWII POW Louis Zamperini called Unbroken, hits theatres December 25.
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Angelina Jolie on 'Unbroken': This story is 'a giant responsibility'
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- Published on Thursday, 21 August 2014 04:21
- Written by Inside Movies
Before U.S. Olympian-turned-WWII hero Louis Zamperini died on July 2 at age 97, director Angelina Jolie showed him the film she’s made about him (in theaters Dec. 25), adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 best-seller. “I brought it on my laptop to the hospital,” Jolie says. “It was a deeply moving, very profound few hours of my life. Telling his story is a giant responsibility.” It was certainly an extraordinary life: Zamperini competed in the 1936 Olympics in track, enlisted with the U.S. Air Force in WWII, survived a crash into the Pacific, spent 47 days marooned on a raft, and then endured over two years of torture in a Japanese POW camp. Playing Zamperini was no easy task. Jack O’Connell, a veteran of British TV’s teen drama Skins, had to lose nearly 30 pounds to appear emaciated in key scenes. “You learn not to think of your own problems,” he says. “That’s something you can attribute to Louie and Angie—they both strive to be selfless every day.” Luckily, not every day was so grueling: One night, O’Connell formed an impromptu band with producer Matthew Baer and costars Garrett Hedlund (who plays a fellow prisoner) and Miyavi (a real-life Japanese rocker who portrays a sadistic guard in the film). Their tunes included “Angie” by the Rolling Stones and, of course, the Kingsmen classic “Louie Louie.”
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Angelina Jolie on why she and Brad Pitt have been “shy” about upcoming film together
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- Published on Sunday, 17 August 2014 20:29
- Written by Radio Times
By the Sea will be the first time the couple have been on screen together since Mr & Mrs Smith, but Jolie says they’re ready for the challenge.Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are to appear in the same film for the first time in nine years, but the actress admits it’s taken some time to decide to do it. “We have been shy of it for quite a few years because it’s very heavy, about a relationship, people going through and surviving a lot together,” Jolie tells the Inquirer of By the Sea. “It’s not easy. So we were nervous about being able to handle the material as actors and to take it on together.” The last time the duo were on screen together was for action hit Mr & Mrs Smith in 2005, the film credited with sparking the pair’s real life relationship. Now, Jolie will both co-star with Pitt and direct him. “Obviously Brad is willing to have me direct him in a film and work with me. He’s extremely supportive, which is wonderful, because we’re interested in different aspects of film.”The film is being described as an intimate character-driven drama, and Pitt will also join Jolie as a producer.This isn’t the first time Jolie has stepped behind the camera. Her 2011 directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Her current project, Unbroken, will chart the true life story of Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini.It’s believed filming on By the Sea will start at the end of this month in Malta.
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