Angelina Jolie is returning to the director’s chair, and to do so she’s re-teaming with Salma Hayek after the two collaborated on Chloe Zhao‘s Marvel film Eternals.
Hayek is starring in and Jolie is writing, directing, and producing Without Blood, an adaptation of the international-bestselling novel by Alessandro Baricco.
The book revolves around a woman named Nina living in the Italian countryside, an area not frequently visited by tourists or anyone living outside the village. But here is where a traumatizing event of terror and violence occurs, leaving Nina as the only survivor of her family thanks to an act of mercy carried out by an unnamed character.
Now in her fifties, Nina reconnects and meets up with the person who saved her all those years ago and walks back through those events which have changed her and made her the woman who she is. The film is expected to dive deep into the themes of war, trauma, memory, and healing.
Jolie said in a statement: “I’m honored to be here in Italy to bring this very special material to film, and to have been entrusted by Alessandro Baricco with the adaptation of his book — with its unique poetry and emotion and way of looking at war, and the questions it poses about what we search for after trauma or loss or injustice.”
This will be Jolie’s first project as part of a three-year international deal she signed with Freemantle, who will handle the film’s distribution. Jolie has previously directed four narrative films, which include romantic drama By The Sea, war film Unbroken, and 2017 historical thriller First They Killed My Father, her most recent release.
Hayek’s 2021 was strong, consisting of Ridley Scott‘s House Of Gucci, comedy Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, Mike Cahill drama Bliss, and the aforementioned Eternals.
She’ll next be seen (or rather, heard) in Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and it was recently announced that she’ll replace Thandiwe Newton in Steven Soderbergh‘s HBO Max sequel Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
Production on Without Blood has reportedly just begun filming in Southern Italy.
#Peace.Love.WithoutBlood
