‘Maria’: Angelina Jolie will return to Netflix as Maria Callas
The Girl, Interrupted star Angelina Jolie is set to appear in a new Netflix original movie as the opera singer Maria Callas in Maria. The filmed is helmed by director Pablo Larraín, famed for his prior work on Jackie, Spencer and Neruda.
For her role in Girl, Interrupted in 1999, Jolie won the ‘Best Actress’ Academy Award, which launched her into a fruitful career featuring prominent roles in Changeling, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Good Shepherd, Maleficent, and Those Who Wish Me Dead.
According to the official synopsis, Maria follows the story of opera singer Maria Callas during her final days in 1970s Paris. The movie is reimagined using central aspects of the true story of Callas’ life. Much of the movie was shot in part at the La Scala opera house. The production designer worked with Larraín to combine ’40s to ’70s styles with surreal musical sequences, and Jolie’s clothing is based on Callas’ original garments.
Discussing the movie in a new interview with Tudum, director Larraín revealed his excitement to work with Netflix and recreate the story of an opera legend. “I’m excited to partner again with the Netflix team who care so passionately about movies. This film is my most personal work yet,” the filmmaker said.
He added: “It is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas who, after dedicating her life to performing for audiences around the world, decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself. I’m deeply honoured to tell this story and share it with audiences worldwide like Maria did with her life.”
The upcoming biopic marks the second collaboration between Larraín and cinematographer Edward Lachman, who previously worked together on El Conde, which earned a ‘Best Cinematography’ Oscar nomination this year.
Maria is also the second of Larraín’s movies to be written by the esteemed screenwriter Steven Knight. The pair previously collaborated on Spencer. Knight is best known for his Academy Award-nominated screenplay for Dirty Pretty Things and, of course, his role in creating Peaky Blinders.