Angelina Jolie Pitt to Direct ‘Cambodia’ Movie With Netflix
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- Published on Friday, 24 July 2015 17:34
- Written by Variety
Angelina Jolie Pitt is the latest top-tier talent to go the digital route, as the multihyphenate is working with Netflix on “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers,” a film she will direct for the studio.The pic is based on a memoir from Cambodian author and human-rights activist Loung Ung about surviving the deadly Khmer Rouge regime.Jolie Pitt will direct and produce the Netflix project from a script she co-adapted with Ung. Cambodian director and producer Rithy Panh, helmer of the Oscar-nominated foreign-language film “The Missing Picture,” will also be a producer.The film will be made available to members of the streaming service in late 2016 and will be submitted to major international festivals.Ung was 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge regime assumed power over Cambodia in 1975 and began a four-year reign of terror and genocide in which nearly 2 million Cambodians died. Forced from her family’s home in Phnom Penh, Ung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans while her six siblings were sent to labor camps. Ung survived and wrote “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers,” which was first published in 2000. Jolie Pitt read the book and contacted Ung over a decade ago. They became close friends and later adapted the screenplay together.“I was deeply affected by Loung’s book,” Jolie Pitt said. “It deepened forever my understanding of how children experience war and are affected by the emotional memory of it. And it helped me draw closer still to the people of Cambodia, my son’s homeland. It is a dream come true to be able to adapt this book for the screen, and I’m honored to work alongside Loung and filmmaker Rithy Panh.”Jolie Pitt’s Cambodian-born son, Maddox, will also be involved in the production of the film.
Netflix’s global reach was a major factor in Jolie Pitt’s desire to partner with the streaming service. “Films like this are hard to watch but important to see,” said Jolie Pitt. “They are also hard to get made. Netflix is making this possible, and I am looking forward to working with them and excited that the film will reach so many people.” The film will be released in both Khmer and English.“We are proud to be working with Angelina Jolie in bringing this emotionally powerful and ultimately uplifting story exclusively to Netflix members around the world,” said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos. “Loung Ung’s incredible journey is a testament to the human spirit and its ability to transcend even the toughest circumstances.”“Angelina and I met in 2001 in Cambodia, and immediately, I trusted Angelina’s heart,” Ung said. “Through the years, we have become close friends, and my admiration for Angelina as a woman, a mother, a filmmaker and a humanitarian has only grown. It is with great honor that I entrust my family’s story to Angelina to adapt into a film.”Jolie Pitt is in post-production on “By the Sea,” a drama she wrote and directed, as well as stars in with Brad Pitt; it will be released by Universal this year. Jolie Pitt recently directed Universal’s “Unbroken,” based on the life of Olympian and World War II POW survivor Louis Zamperini. She made her feature directorial debut with “In the Land of Blood and Honey.” She is repped by UTA and Media Talent Group.
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Tsarina Angelina: Jolie snaps up film rights to torrid tale of Catherine the Great's love trysts in the Winter Palace sauna
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- Published on Tuesday, 07 July 2015 03:34
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie is set to play the nymphomaniac Catherine the Great in a new drama about the Russian empress’s scandalous love life.The Oscar-winner has bought the rights to British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore’s bestselling book about Catherine’s ‘secret’ and very open marriage to the flamboyant and ambitious Grigory Potemkin.The character is something of a dream come true for Jolie, who has made no secret of her quest for meaty female roles. She played Queen Olympias in Oliver Stone’s 2004 Alexander The Great biopic and the title role in last year’s Maleficent – and has been on the lookout for another regal role ever since.Sebag Montefiore said: ‘I am thrilled that Angelina has optioned the book because it was my first book and it was very much a labour of love.‘Catherine is the ultimate feminist hero. I feel very safe with Angelina in charge of it.’His book, Catherine The Great And Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair, was published in 2000 and drew on 5,000 previously unpublished love letters between the pair.
Catherine ascended the Russian throne in 1762 following a coup in which her husband, Tsar Peter III, was murdered. Potemkin was one of the conspirators and Catherine’s enemies always claimed she was involved in the Tsar’s death.The Empress – whose 27-year reign is regarded as a golden era in Russian history – was also a sexually liberated woman who embarked on affairs with countless men.Her enemies used her sexual conquests against her and branded her a nymphomaniac.But the highly educated Catherine was particularly infatuated with Potemkin, with whom she enjoyed secret trysts in the sauna of St Petersburg’s Winter Palace.The couple, who were alleged to have married in secret, became co-rulers of the Russian Empire.Sebag Montefiore said: ‘Catherine and Potemkin had history’s greatest love affair. They were both brilliant people who were totally equal and totally balanced.‘They were the great loves of each other’s lives and, in effect, they were one of the most successful political couples in the whole of history. By comparison, Antony and Cleopatra were a disaster whose relationship ended with failure and suicide.’He added that Potemkin ‘was a wild character who ruled like a sultan. He travelled with gardens which were planted every night by thousands of serfs’.How much Jolie’s production company paid for the rights is being kept a commercial secret, but one source described it as a ‘high five-figure sum’.
Jolie was first linked to the role of Catherine the Great in a separate movie mooted more than a decade ago, but that never materialised. And although the actress is being linked to the role in this new production, it is also possible that she might prefer to remain behind the camera as producer. She has already directed two films, including last year’s Unbroken, and she has made no secret of the fact that she is considering giving up acting.It is also unclear whether this adaptation would be for TV or film. If Jolie does take on the role, she will be following in the footsteps of Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who have all played the Empress in the past.Bea Hemming, editorial director of Weidenfeld & Nicolson which published Sebag Montefiore’s book, said: ‘We’re delighted at the news that this magnificent biography has been optioned.‘Simon always brings the drama and intensity of cinema to his writing, so it will be thrilling to see his work brought to life on screen.’
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'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' Reality Show In the Works!
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- Published on Wednesday, 24 June 2015 17:00
- Written by Just Jared
A reality show based on Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the 2005 Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt smash hit, is in development!3 Ball Entertainment and New Regency, which produced the film, has teamed up again for a reality game-competition version of the flick.The show’s details are being kept under wraps, but will reportedly feature “married couples that compete in a high-octane, high-stakes game,” Variety reports.The original film was a big hit in theaters and brought in over $500 million at the box office.ARE YOU EXCITED for a Mr. and Mrs. Smith reality show???
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Jack Black is Back in the Kung Fu Panda 3 Trailer
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- Published on Friday, 19 June 2015 10:18
- Written by Coming soon
DreamWorks Animation has revealed the first Kung Fu Panda 3 trailer which you can watch below! The sequel is set to open in theaters on January 29, 2016.Continuing on his now legendary adventures of awesomeness, Po must face two hugely epic, but very different threats: one supernatural and the other a little closer to home. This chapter in the continuing adventures of Kung Fu Panda is directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who also helmed the worldwide hit Kung Fu Panda 2, and features a script by series writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.Jack Black returns as the voice of Po in the film along with Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman, David Cross, Angelina Jolie, Michelle Yeoh, Mads Mikkelsen, Danny McBride, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, James Hong, and Bryan Cranston.The first two chapters of DreamWorks Animation’s critically-acclaimed Kung Fu Panda franchise opened in 2008 and 2011. Both films were honored with Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature Film. Together, they have generated approximately $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office.
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Angelina Jolie wanted for Maleficent sequel ...as Disney develop follow-up to the $760 million blockbuster
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- Published on Tuesday, 16 June 2015 06:10
- Written by Daily mail
Disney is working on a sequel to the 2014 live action fairytale Maleficent and the Mouse House wants Angelina Jolie to return in the title role.Deadline.com reported Monday that Disney is eager to capitalize on the worldwide appeal of the first film which cost $180 million to make but grossed a total of almost $760 million globally.The website says the studio plans to keep Jolie 'in the loop' and Linda Woolverton, who wrote the screenplay for the first film, has been tapped to write the next one with Jolie in mind to return as the winged character.It's not clear right now if the actress will, in fact, return for the sequel or if she's even interested in doing so.She's only made one live action sequel - and that was for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring in The Cradle Of Life.So far she's resisted invitations to make follow-ups to her films Salt and Wanted.But it may ultimately depend on whether her youngest children want their mom to do it, having been thrilled when she won a Teen Choice Award this year for the role. Late last year, Jolie, who turned 40 on June 4, announced she intended to quit acting and focus instead on working behind the camera.She directed husband Brad Pitt in the romance By The Sea which is currently in post-production and is rumored to be prepping to work with him again on the film Africa.
She's also busy raising her brood of six with Pitt and is committed to her work as a United Nations Special Envoy with a focus on the plight of refugees. The 2014 blockbuster was an adaptation of the classic fairytale of Sleeping Beauty with Jolie's character based on the iconic villain from Disney's classic 1959 animated feature.There's no clues yet as to how the story might be developed from the ending of the first movie that saw Maleficent unite her Moors kingdom with that of humans under Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty whom she cursed and then awakened.Maleficent 2 will be the fourth live action fairytale script Woolverton will do for Disney.In addition to Maleficent, she scripted 2010's Alice In Wonderland and its sequel Alice Through The Looking Glass, which is set for release next year. She also penned Disney's Beauty And The Beast that's currently filming and stars Emma Watson, Luke Evans and Ian McKellen. It's not yet known of the first film's director Robert Stromberg will be back to helm to sequel or if any other cast are attached to the project at this early stage.
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