Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, In The Land Of Blood And Honey, may not have done much business at the box office, but it certainly showed she has talent behind the camera. Now it’s been revealed she’s lining up her second effort as a director, as Variety reports that she’s in talks to direct Universal’s planned adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s true-story novel, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.
The book is about Louis Zamperini, who competed in the US athletics team during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he had a personal meeting with Hitler. A few years later he was a WWII soldier who, along with two other crewman, survived in a raft after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII. The men we eventually captured by the Japanese Navy and sent to a P.O.W. camp.
Jolie commented, “I read Laura Hillenbrand’s brilliant book, and I was so moved by Louis Zamperini’s heroic story, I immediately began to fight for the opportunity to make this film. Louis is a true hero and a man of immense humanity, faith and courage. I am deeply honored to have the chance to tell his inspiring story.”
William Nicholson wrote the first draft of the screenplay with Richard LaGravenese providing a re-write back in early 2011, although it likely someone else will be hired to finesse the script once Jolie signs on the dotted line. It isn’t known when it might shoot.