Angelina Jolie Pitt to Direct ‘Cambodia’ Movie for Netflix

Justin Kroll

Angelina Jolie Pitt is the latest top tier talent to go the digital route, as the multi-hyphenate is working with Netflix on “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers,” an original film she will direct for the studio.

The pic is based on a harrowing memoir from Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung about surviving the deadly Khmer Rouge regime.

Jolie Pitt will direct and produce the Netflix original from a script she co-adapted with Ung. Cambodian director and producer Rithy Panh, helmer of the Oscar-nominated best foreign language film “The Missing Picture,” will also be a producer.

The film will be made available to members of the streaming service in late 2016 and will be submitted to major international festivals.

Ung was five years old when the Khmer Rouge regime assumed power over Cambodia in 1975 and began a four-year reign of terror and genocide in which nearly two million Cambodians died.

Forced from her family’s home in Phnom Penh, Ung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans while her six siblings were sent to labor camps. Ung survived and wrote “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers,” which was first published in 2000. Jolie Pitt read the book and contacted Ung over a decade ago. They became close friends and later adapted the screenplay together.

“I was deeply affected by Loung’s book,” commented Jolie Pitt. “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. It is a dream come true to be able to adapt this book for the screen, and I’m honored to work alongside Loung and filmmaker Rithy Panh.”

Jolie Pitt’s Cambodian-born son, Maddox, will also be involved in the production of the film.

source: http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/angelina-jolie-pitt-netflix-movie-direct-1201547605/

PPP article Jolie Pitt to direct feature in Cambodia

Brent Crane

US actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie Pitt is set to direct an upcoming Netflix feature set in Cambodia.

The film, an adaptation of Khmer Rouge survivor Loung Ung’s 2000 memoir "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers", will be produced by Oscar-nominated Cambodian director Rithy Panh ("The Missing Picture", "The Sea Wall") and become available to Netflix subscribers in late 2016.

Jolie Pitt, who will also co-produce the film alongside Panh, co-wrote the script with Ung and her adopted son Maddox, who was born in Cambodia.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/jolie-pitt-direct-feature-cambodia