Actress-Oscar winner-humanitarian-child collector Angelina Jolie is adding more hyphens to her title. British production company GK Films is financing her feature film directorial debut and first screenplay, an untitled love story set against the Bosnian war. Jolie will not star in the film.
Producer Graham King’s blog reports the film is about a young Serb and a Muslim woman who fall in love just before the start of the Bosnian war and how the Eastern European conflict affects their passionate relationship. The cast will consist of unknown actors of various ethnic groups from the former Yugoslavia, Jolie said after speaking with Bosnian government officials about the refugee crisis.
Rade Šerbedžija (Snatch, Middle Men) agreed to play a WWII veteran, a Serbian patriot, and the father of the male lead, according to Blic, after Jolie personally called and explained her take on the war. He even offered additional details that contain spoilers. ”The action follows war events with young Muslim woman ending up in a Serbian concentration camp from where she is somehow saved by the young Serb,” Serbadzija said.
I poked a little fun at Jolie’s hyphens, but this sounds really great. It’s an ambitious undertaking that simultaneously brings awareness to one of her many worthy causes. Plus the added benefit of a break from generic Jolie action vehicles like Salt. Production starts September 3 in Belgrade with plans to shoot in Budapest and Sarajevo.
King, who won an Oscar for The Departed, is developing an adaptation of the British series “Unforgiven” with screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie with a starring role for Jolie. Deadline reports the story is about a woman attempting to assimilate back into society after a 15-year prison sentence, only the sons of her victims, two police officers, are targeting her for revenge. The actress next appears in the King-produced The Tourist with Johnny Depp.
