Angelina Jolie is busy with post-production on Unbroken, her Oscar shoo-in opening Christmas Day, but the actress-turned-filmmaker has already lined up her next project.
Jolie announced last week that she would direct an “intimate, character-driven drama” for Universal called By the Sea. She will star, produce, and co-write the script with Brad Pitt, who will also star.
By the Sea will be Jolie’s third film and her second time sharing the screen with Pitt after 2005’s Mr and Mrs. Smith.
In a press release, she stated, “I am very happy to continue my relationship with [Universal Chairwoman] Donna [Langley] and the entire Universal team as I finish Unbroken and begin work on By The Sea. They have created a very special place for storytellers, and I look forward to the continued passion and support they have provided to me as a filmmaker.”
Langley commented, “Angelina continues to showcase her extraordinary storytelling abilities in front of and behind the camera and we are thrilled to extend our relationship with her on By the Sea.”
Earlier this month, Langley emphasized that there was no “magic bullet answer” to Hollywood’s gender inequality problem. Though not every female filmmaker can start where Jolie does (as an A-list celebrity with directorial vision and enormous reserves of goodwill for her humanitarian endeavors), Langley at least seems to have no hesitation in re-hiring Jolie (which of course suggests good things about Unbroken).
Among the six studios, Universal had the lowest rate of hiring women from 2009–2013. But, maybe, those numbers will improve as in addition to Unbroken, Universal has two other female-helmed projects on the docket for 2015, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Fifty Shades of Grey and Elizabeth Banks’ directorial debut Pitch Perfect 2.
[via Awards Daily]
