Angelina Jolie remains one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actresses. In the past year alone, Jolie has declared herself in Marvel’s Timeless and Taylor Sheridan’s thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead. Her next film as a director will be the drama No Blood with Salma Hayek in the leading role. And also a drama by Chilean director Pablo Larraín, where Angelina will reprise her role as one of the greatest opera divas of the 20th century. Directed by Steven Knight, who wrote “Sharp Visors” and “Spencer”, the film tells the tragic story of Callas’ life, re-experienced and re-imagined in her final days in 1970s Paris.
“I take the responsibility for Maria’s life and legacy very seriously and will do everything in my power to meet this challenge. Pablo Larraín is a filmmaker I have long admired. To have the opportunity to tell more of Maria’s story with him and from a script by Stephen Knight is a dream come true,” says Jolie.
In terms of biopics, Larraín is considered one of the strongest directors. It was he who helped Kristen Stewart get her first Oscar nomination for her role as Princess Diana in Spencer and Natalie Portman to be recognised for her role in the drama Jackie, where the actress played Jacqueline Kennedy.
Of her upcoming work with Angelina Jolie, Larraín says this:
“The opportunity to combine two of my deepest and most personal passions – film and opera – has been a long-awaited dream. To do it with Angelina, a supremely courageous and inquisitive artist, is an amazing opportunity. A true gift.”
Maria Callas, to be played by Jolie, was an American soprano singer of Greek origin. The American composer Leonard Bernstein called her “the bible of opera”. But Callas was known not only for her voice, but also for a series of scandals related to her troubled character and her public relationship with Aristotle Onassis, who eventually left her for Jackie Kennedy. The opera diva died of a heart attack at the age of 53.
