While Salt 2 undergoes rewrites, Angelina Jolie has found something to keep her occupied. The actress known for her roles in action films is now set to direct her second dramatic film. This will mark the Maleficent star’s first feature for a major studio as Deadline reports that she had to win Universal Pictures over for a gig behind-the-camera on the big screen adaptation of Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. This is a novel from Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand about the true story of Louis Zamperini–a U.S. Olympian who spent over three years as a Japanese-held prisoner of war. The book has been on the NY Times best-seller list for 108 consecutive weeks which means people are familiar with this man. In case you are one of those who are not, go ahead and check out the wiki page of Louis Zamperini to hear about his incredible tale.
As for Jolie, that is another story as we do not exactly know what we are getting with this one. While directors almost always improve with the second outing of their career, In the Land of Blood and Honey (her first film) was panned by both critics and audiences. With that in mind, we do not know exactly what Universal is thinking here. Maybe they are simply so hot on the script by Gladiator and Les Miserables co-writer William Nicholson that they think nobody could screw it up or perhaps they want to roll the dice and try to find an equivalent to Warner Bros.’s Ben Affleck. Either way, this is still a risk, but one audiences will definitely hope pays off because of the source material being used.
The actress can next be seen on the big screen in Disney’s Maleficent which opens on March 14, 2014.
