First images from drama By the Sea starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been a couple since meeting on the set of 2005’s MR. AND MRS. SMITH. That is nine years of Brangelina covering every tabloid paper in America. It has also been that long since the pair appeared on screen together. But, that will all change in BY THE SEA.

Written and directed by Angelina Jolie, BY THE SEA is already in production. Jolie’s anticipated UNBROKEN doesn’t even hit theaters until Christmas, but she is already at work on this drama. Scale-wise, this is a much smaller movie, but still shows the actress has a tireless work ethic.

Entertainment Weekly debuted the first stills from the film as well as the official synopsis.

Set in France during the mid-1970s, Jolie plays Vanessa, a former dancer, and Pitt is her husband Roland, an American writer. As they travel the country together, they seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper (War Horse and A Prophet‘s Niels Arestrup, pictured below) and hotel owner (Richard Bohringer, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.)

This will mark the third film for Jolie as director and all three films have been very different. Her first, IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY, was critically panned but still showed promise. UNBROKEN looks pretty damn good and you cannot deny the acting abilities of Pitt and Jolie. I am definitely intrigued to see how this project will turn out.

BY THE SEA has no release date but expect to see it hit the festival circuit before a wide release in 2015.