Angelina Jolie is adding another film under her directorial belt, and she’s bringing on a top tier cast to do it. Salma Hayek Pinault and Demián Bichir have been tapped to star in Without Blood, which Jolie is also writing and producing. The feature comes as Jolie’s first project under her three-year international overall deal with Fremantle and will be based on the international-bestselling novel by Alessandro Baricco. While their roles haven’t been revealed, as specific details surrounding the film are being kept under wraps, Hayek Pinault and Bichir have signed on as the production’s stars.
And while we don’t know much about the plot, the original book centered around a child turned woman named Nina. The novel begins in the Italian countryside, an area not frequently visited by tourists or anyone living outside the village for that matter. It’s here that a traumatizing event of terror and violence occurs, leaving Nina to be the only survivor of her family. The only reason Nina keeps her life is through 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 terrifying events which have changed her and made her the woman who she is. Those behind the on-screen production, which has begun filming in southern Italy and Rome, have stated that the film will do a deep dive into the “universal truths about war, trauma, memory, and healing.
Of this exciting new opportunity to bring a beloved book about the human condition to life, Jolie released a statement saying,
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.
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Without Blood is being produced by Fremantle who teamed up with director Paolo Sorrentino last year to bring audiences The Hand of God, which nabbed an Academy Award nomination for the international feature at this year’s ceremony. Jolie will also produce under her Jolie Productions with Lorenzo Mieli’s The Apartment Pictures, and Lorenzo De Maio’s De Maio Entertainment. Fremantle plans to handle distribution.
The makings of a perfect storm, Jolie’s partnership with Freemantle is a sure fire way to give them both another critically acclaimed piece. As of right now, a release date for Without Blood hasn’t been revealed, but stay tuned to Collider for more information.
