Tom Brokaw narrates the first clip from Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, a prestigious biopic of former Olympian and war hero Louis "Louie" Zamerpini (played by Jack O’Connell). The clip aired during NBC’s telecast of the Winter Olympics from Sochi on Sunday evening.
O’Connell stars as Zamperini, a one-time Olympic athlete who – along with two other soldiers – survived on a life raft for 47 days following a brutal plane crash during World War II. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when Zamperini and his castaways were picked up, they ended up being caught by the Japanese Navy and shipped to a prisoner-of-war camp. Chances are they don’t discover Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) at the bottom of a pit.
The clip, teased above (via Universal’s YouTube page), mixes footage from Jolie’s movie with photos and interviews with Zamperini, now 97 and looking like he could compete in this year’s Games. The studio teased images of Jolie posing with Zamperini, and a shot of the director in action on a water-bound set. We saw them a while ago, but are happy to share them agin, in case you missed them:
Zamperini has gone on to make his mark as a motivational speaker. I wonder if Jolie will make him a part of her finished film, or if the entirety of the story will be set in the past. I love the way that they are relying on him when giving Olympic audiences their first look at the film. Now they have to keep it on their radar as they wait until Christmas, when Unbroken opens in theaters.
This will be Jolie’s second directorial feature-film credit, after 2011’s In the Land of Blood and Honey. Her footage has the nostalgic tinge of a Forrest Gump. Perhaps it’s just all of that running. And if you didn’t know, the Unbroken screenplay is credited, in part, to Joel and Ethan Coen, so that has us intrigued. In addition to O’Connell, the drama stars Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund and Jai Courtney. The clip does a great job of introducing us to Zamperini. Now we’re excited to learn more.
