Word of mouth about Netflix must be pretty damn good in the Jolie-Pitt house. Almost two months after Brad Pitt shook hands with the company to have them distribute his upcoming star/producer project War Machine, a satirical comedy and departure-from-the-norm for Animal Kingdom/The Rover director David Michod, Angelina Jolie is teaming with the streaming site for her fourth directorial effort, the Loung Ung biography First They Killed My Father.
[amz asin=”0060856262″ size=”small”]The feature is an adaptation of Ung’s best-selling memoir of the same name, who helped co-adapt the screenplay with Jolie. The two are reported to be very close friends from a bond beginning in 2001, one year after her book was published to wide-spread acclaim. The superstar reached out to her at the time with her love and praise for her words, and they’ve tried to turn this into a feature since.
Jolie is also on board to produce the feature, a position she’ll share with Camboadian filmmaker Rithy Panh, who was behind 2013’s striking and individually haunting Oscar-nominated documentary The Missing Picture. Despite all the hats she’ll juggle, she’s expected to stay behind-the-camera with this, just like she did for her debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey and her sophomore film, last year’s Oscar-wannabe Unbroken. There’s no word yet on who is expected to star, however, besides Jolie’s adopted Cambodian-son, Maddox.
The time-frame for First They Killed My Father is mostly vague, but the momentary plan is to have it drop on the site in late 2016 after its submitted into major international film festivals, in hopes it’ll gain exceptional word-of-mouth and awards season buzz before the masses plug in. Either way, Jolie’s among the few people in Hollywood today who can genuinely sell a movie based on name recognition alone, so Netflix probably won’t be too worried if the gold statues don’t come their way on this one.
Production should come together either later this year or in the early quarters of the next, once Jolie finishes post-production on By the Sea (a film she does star in, alongside her husband, in addition to also writing and producing) and does the film festival dance and its promotional runs before Universal releases the drama in theaters on November 13.
At five years old, Ung watched the Khmer Rouge regime assumed power over Cambodia and saw as their four-year reign from 1975-1979 resulted in the genocide of nearly two million citizens. Jolie’s movie will recount how Ung was removed from her family in Phnom Penh to be trained as a child solider in a work camp for orphans, all while her six siblings were sent to live in labor camps. Brutal stuff, but Jolie proved with In the Land of Blood and Honey and Unbroken her commitment to depict the monstrosities of humanity under a stern and sometimes unforgiving gaze. Although it didn’t work out for the later in terms of narrative structure, it does prove the filmmaker has a bravery behind-the-lens which could serve as a beneficiary and appropriate depict of Ung’s harrowing life story.
With that in mind, Jolie’s passion and closeness to the subject should be a blessing, but same determination didn’t save her previous picture. Hopefully having to cover around four years time is more do-able than one man’s extraordinary life story in nearly two-hours time. That was her biggest downfall before, and, while she does have a lot to work with her, she is growing more committed as a storyteller. Maybe this time it’ll work out. At any rate, she has the team behind her to pull it off if she does.
This marks Jolie’s second biopic as a director, following her disappointing Louis Zamperini life story. Another one, Africa, based on Richard Leakey‘s experiences in the ’80s, was initially set to be her fourth directing vehicle. Her husband would once again get the shots called by her and cinematographer Roger Deakins would return to work as well, but it apparently remains postponed. Some reports suggest finance issues behind-the-scenes is the case for this. Jolie’s plan is to begin work on that film again after this newly-announced one, but to quote my mother, you know what they say about well-laid plans. [Variety]
