Angelina Jolie has been hard at work on her third directorial effort UNBROKEN.
The true story of “Louis “Louie” Zamperini who survived on a raft with two fellow crewmen for 47 days after being shot down in WWII, only to be captured and detained for two years as prisoners-of-war by the Japanese.” The tale is adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s novel “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption”. Hillenbrand also penned SEABISCUIT which was turned into a movie with Tobey Maguire in 2003. The script has had quite a few edits from great writers, most notably Joel and Ethan Coen.
We have our first stills from the film which show stars Jack O’Connell and Domhnall Gleeson (ABOUT TIME), and Jolie hard at work as helmer.
Here’s a more detailed description of the story:
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.
The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that lead to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.
Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
UNBROKEN hits theaters on December 25, 2014.