Angelina Jolie Considers ‘Maleficent 2’ and Directorial Projects Galore Amid Divorce From Brad Pitt
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- Published on Saturday, 05 May 2018 16:19
- Written by US magazine
Not done with Hollywood just yet. Angelina Jolie may reprise her role as the titular character in Maleficent 2 and has numerous directorial projects in the works amid her nasty and very public divorce from Brad Pitt, according to The Hollywood Reporter.The site reports that Jolie, 41, will not be taking a step back from Hollywood, as has been previously speculated; instead, the By the Sea actor-director will be tackling a number of different projects in the coming year.Her most recent directorial endeavor, First They Killed My Father, screened in Cambodia on Saturday, February 18, and Jolie made headlines when she brought all six kids — Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8 — with her to meet Cambodian royalty and taste-test the local cuisine, including spiders.The Oscar winner’s next projects will keep her closer to home, however, with two large-scale projects in development for Universal: an adaptation of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair and The Spy Who Loved, a World War II espionage drama based on Clare Mulley’s 2012 book.Jolie is also looking to develop what might be her next directing project, an adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s 2004 novel Without Blood, which tells the story of an unnamed war. On the other end of the genre spectrum, the U.N. special envoy is also a producer on the Disney kid’s film The One and Only Ivan.Jolie’s last appearance in front of the camera was in By the Sea, which she also wrote and directed. Costarring her now ex-husband, Brad Pitt, the film bombed at the box office. In 2016, she lent her voice to Kung Fu Panda 3, as the character Tigress.She is also considering starring in Universal’s remake of The Bride of Frankenstein and Sony’s Shoot Like a Girl, based on the true story of American Air Force major and helicopter pilot Mary Jennings Hegar.As previously reported, while in Cambodia with her kids, Jolie opened up about her headline-making split from Pitt, 53, calling it a “difficult time.” “My family, we’ve all been through a difficult time,” Jolie said during a BBC interview when asked about how she's been dealing with the stress of the divorce. “My focus is my children, our children, and it is — and my focus is finding this way through. And as I said, we are and forever will be a family. And so that is how I’m coping. I’m coping with finding a way through to make sure this somehow makes us stronger and closer.”
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Trailer of Turkish TV series starring Angelina Jolie, Cristiano Ronaldo shot in Gaziantep
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- Published on Saturday, 18 February 2017 15:53
- Written by Daily sabah
Shooting for the trailer of a new Turkish series called "Hayat Köprüsü" (Bridge of Life), which will feature international stars like actress Angelina Jolie and football player Cristiano Ronaldo, wrapped up in Turkey's southern Gaziantep province.The series is planned to last for three seasons, and will tell the story of a Syrian family seeking refuge in Turkey, after fleeing their war-torn country.Director Eyüp Dirlik said that the project was launched with the slogan "Either you stay there and die, or you come here and live". Dirlik also gave information about the casting, stating that international celebrities would visit Turkey's Gaziantep to support the project.The director announced that his crew was in contact with some international relief agencies, adding that Ronaldo and Jolie were among the big celebrities who wanted to contribute to the project.The new series is expected to become an international project after the trailer reaches wide audiences and particularly considering the production's existing contacts with countries across the Middle East.Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin said that the series' plot was gripping, as it would include love, drama, family ties and the struggle for life.Leading actress Perihan Savaş announced that the actual filming of the series would start this March in Gaziantep.Expressing her excitement about the new project, Savaş stated that the series could also be seen as a lesson for humanity, telling the lives of Syrian refugees in Gaziantep and the city's hospitality.
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Angelina Jolie Steps Out Ahead of Cambodia Premiere of Her New Film
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- Published on Saturday, 18 February 2017 12:03
- Written by People
Angelina Jolie is back in the spotlight.The actress stepped out for a press conference ahead of the Cambodia premiere of her new film First They Killed My Father on Saturday in Siem Reap, Cambodia.The film will be presented in the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex. Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni, Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk and senior government officials are expected to attend.This marks the 41-year-old Oscar winner’s first public appearance since she filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in September 2016. She visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan on Sept. 9, where she urged United Nations leaders to find an end to the Syrian conflict.During the press conference for the film, Jolie said she thinks of Cambodia “like a second home,” adding, “Maddox is happy to be back in his country.”First They Killed My Father is based on the autobiography of the same name by Cambodian human-rights activist Loung Ung, a friend of Jolie’s. The memoir tells the true story of the devastation inflicted on Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge communist party in the 1970s.“I read Loung’s book many years ago,” Jolie said. “It helped to open my eyes to what was going on the world.” She added, “I wanted to tell the story to through the eyes of the child’s point of view, the love of a family, to show the beauty of the country and understand what Maddox’s parents may have gone through.”More than two million people, out of a total population of seven million, were killed during the purge, including Ung’s father, mother and two sisters. “The heart of it is Loung’s story, it’s the story of a war through the eyes of a child, but it is also the story of a country,” Jolie said in a promotional clip for the film.In order to create an accurate portrait of the war, Jolie insisted on using only Cambodian actors, and the language spoken throughout is their native Khmer. The actors themselves are the survivors and children of the survivors of the genocide. Jolie, Ung and the producers hoped the experience of making the film would be cathartic for those who participated.Jolie fell in love with Cambodia after filming Tomb Raider in 2000. Not long after she was finished with production, she returned to the country as a volunteer for the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, for which she is now a special envoy. In 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox, from a Battambang orphanage.And it was Maddox who, after years of putting it off, convinced Jolie and Ung to make the film. “He was the one who just called it and said he was ready and that he wanted to work on it, which he did. He read the script, helped with notes, and was in the production meetings,” Jolie recently told The Guardian.Jolie’s second-oldest son, Pax, was also involved in the production. In 2015, Jolie told PEOPLE, “Pax is doing a lot of the stills,” adding, “The whole movie is from a child’s point of view.”During the presser, Jolie made it a point to emphasize that the public does not hear the stories of all of the girls and boys who are going through the same thing today as Loung Ung did in the 1970s, noting, “Her story is universal.”“I’m deeply honored to have had the chance to work on the film,” Jolie said. “I hope it reminds everyone that there are little Loungs all around the world today.”First They Killed My Father will be released globally via Netflix later this year.
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Cambodian king to open Jolie's film on Khmer Rouge survivor
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- Published on Tuesday, 14 February 2017 17:43
- Written by Boston Herald
Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni will preside over the premiere Saturday of Angelina Jolie's film based on a memoir from a Khmer Rouge survivor.Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk and senior government officials will also attend the showing of "First They Killed My Father" at the centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex, a spokesman for the government agency that oversees the archaeological site said Tuesday.Jolie, who directed the Khmer-language film on location in 2015-16, is also scheduled to attend.Two free public screens are planned at the site near Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia.The film is based on Loung Ung's account of her survival as a child under the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime, believed to be responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, disease and execution.Jolie has had an affinity for Cambodia since she began goodwill work for the U.N.'s refugee agency in 2001, and her eldest son, Maddox, was adopted from the country. She also has established a foundation to promote social development in rural Cambodia.King Sihamoni's late father, Norodom Sihanouk, produced, wrote, directed and sometimes even acted in more than two dozen films made when he was in and out of power. Sihamoni has a deep interest in art and culture, focused on dance, both ballet and classical Cambodian dance.Long Kosal, the spokesman for Apsara Authority, the agency that oversees the temple complex, said he is pleased that the movie will have its premiere at Angkor Wat."As a Khmer Rouge survivor, I am very proud that this movie is to be screened here, as the film will recall how the atrocities and harm caused to the Cambodian people under the Khmer Rouge regime," he said, explaining that it would be a good lesson to younger generations not to let such a brutal type of regime take power.Jolie's previous directorial projects include the 2015 marriage drama "By the Sea," in which she starred alongside then-husband Brad Pitt, and the 2014 survival story "Unbroken."
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Angelina Jolie shares teaser of Netflix passion project she directed based on Cambodian genocide memoir
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- Published on Friday, 03 February 2017 11:51
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie shared a preview on Thursday of her Netflix passion project First They Killed My Father.The 41-year-old Oscar-winning actress directed the film based on the 2000 memoir First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers by Jolie's friend and former refugee Loung Ung.The preview clip opened with a title card that read: 'Between 1975 - 1979 Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge killed nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population.'Two columns of armed troops were then shown marching down a city street.Jolie was seen on the set that employed hundreds of genocide survivors and children of survivors to recreate history for the film. 'It's the first time there's something on this size about this war in this country,' Jolie said.The clip showed Cambodians working on the set and tweaking props including barbed wire. I feel like nobody is here for themselves and everybody here to do any job is here to put something forward and help their country speak,' Jolie said.It was a theme echoed in the clip by producer Rithy Panh.'In order to mourn we must speak. It’s the possibility of using creation to reconstruct ourselves. Telling a story is also mourning, it’s also moving on,' Panh said. Jolie filmed her hit 2001 film Lara Craft: Tomb Raider in Cambodia and the humanitarian crisis she witnessed there sparked her work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.She has since visited refugee camps in Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Pakistan.
Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2001. She adopted her first child Maddox in 2002 from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia.Jolie credited Maddox with convincing her to make the film after it languished for years.'He was the one who just called it and said he was ready and that he wanted to work on it, which he did. He read the script, helped with notes, and was in the production meetings,' Jolie recently told The Guardian. Jolie spoke out against US President Donald Trump's immigration ban on Thursday in an op-ed piece published in The New York Times.She urged the US to address the refugee crisis 'based on facts, not fear'.'Refugees are men, women and children caught in the fury of war, or the cross hairs of persecution. Far from being terrorists, they are often the victims of terrorism themselves,' she wrote.First They Killed My Father will premiere in Siem Reap, Cambodia on February 18.It will be released globally on Netflix later this year.
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