In her short but notable run so far as a director, Angelina Jolie has shown a propensity towards making films about pain, suffering, and death. It seems that she will continue that trend for an upcoming project, as she has just signed a deal with Netflix to helm a project called First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.
Variety was the first to report about the film, which is being based on the memoir of the same name by Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung. In addition to directing, Angelina Jolie is also producing and has co-written the script with the woman who went through the horrific story told in the book. In an official statement about the developing movie and her personal connection to the story, Jolie said,
I was deeply affected by Loung’s book. It deepened forever my understanding of how children experience war and are affected by the emotional memory of it. And it helped me draw closer still to the people of Cambodia, my son’s homeland.
First They Killed My Father was first released in 2000, and begins in the mid-1970s when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge took over the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Loung Ung was five years old at the time, and with her parents gone she was enlisted as a child soldier in an orphan work camp. According to the trade report, Angelina Jolie first contacted the author more than a decade ago, and after becoming close friends they began to work on a screenplay together.
Angelina Jolie began her career as a director in 2011, when she both wrote and helmed the Bosnian War-set In The Land of Blood And Honey - and it was last year that she found herself working from a Coen brothers script and making the World War II torture story Unbroken. Most recently, she has actually been getting away from the "pain and suffering" genre, and has completed filming the romantic drama By The Sea - which she stars in with her husband, Brad Pitt. That film is currently in post-production, and currently on schedule to be released November 13th.
While the trade report doesn't 100 confirm it, it would appear as though First They Killed My Father will be the next film Angelina Jolie directs. While there is no official release date penciled in, there is a plan to have the finished cut available on Netflix in late 2016. There is also consideration being given to the idea of having the movie play at certain but unspecified international film festivals before its streaming service debut. It will be interesting to see how this project develops, especially when it comes to casting the actress to play Loung Ung, so stay tuned for more updates.
