The marriage drama “By the Sea” will mark Angelina Jolie’s third time behind the camera and her first time directing herself.
The film will star Jolie and her real-life husband Brad Pitt as fictional spouses attempting to mend their broken marriage. Vacationing in France, writer Roland (Pitt) and former dancer Vanessa (Jolie) stop at a seaside village and deal with their marital issues with the help of a few locals.
And now Universal has announced that the film will arrive in theaters on November 13 in the middle of awards season — which means the studio is betting heavily on Jolie’s vision and voice.
The Oscar-winning actress also wrote and produced the project. “I chose to set ‘By the Sea’ in the 1970s,” she explained in an earlier interview, “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.”
The film will be Jolie and Pitt’s first on-screen reunion since 2005’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” Jolie’s last directorial effort, “Unbroken,” grossed $161 million worldwide.
In addition to “By the Sea,” this year — unlike many others — will see a handful of high-grossing films directed by women, such as Sam Taylor Johnson’s “Fifty Shades of Grey,” Elizabeth Banks’ “Pitch Perfect 2,” Anne Fletcher’s “Hot Pursuit,” Niki Caro’s “McFarland, USA,” Nancy Meyers’ “The Intern,” Patricia Riggen’s “The 33” and hopefully Sarah Gavron’s “Suffragette.”
[via THR]
