Coen Brothers to rewrite Unbroken for director Angelina Jolie

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I haven’t seen Angelina Jolie‘s directing debut IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY, but have read very mixed reviews on the film. In addition her movie only made back $303,877 of its $13 million budget, so her first effort was a bit of a disappointment. Jolie also wrote the script for the film, but this time around she’s bringing in some big guns to do script duties.

THR is reporting that Angelina Jolie has picked Joel and Ethan Coen to rewrite UNBROKEN, an adaptation of the 2010 book by Lauren Hillenbrand about World War II survivor Lou Zamperini. The film once had Francis Lawrence (THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, CONSTANTINE) attached to direct, but Angelina Jolie ended up joining the project in December. Apparently since then Jolie has been searching for a writer (a source for THR says she was very choosy) and specifically a writer with top level talent.

Here’s the inspiration true story of Lou Zamperini:

Zamperini was a Los Angeles high school track star who raced in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1943, his Air Force plane crashed in the Pacific. He survived without food and water for 47 days, enduring shark attacks, aerial attacks and hunger before washing ashore on a Japanese island behind enemy lines, where he was held as a prisoner of war for two years and tortured by his captors.

I had no idea who Lou Zamperini is but now I want to check out the book. It sounds like a more brutal version of CASTAWAY. You can read up on him here.

Anything involving the Coen brothers immediately goes on the “keep an eye on” list. Although her debut may not have been the breakthrough as a director she expected, it certainly looks like Angelina Jolie is bringing her A-game for her sophomore effort.