Angelina Jolie is adding another film to her directorial roster, and this time she’ll be working with Netflix. The streaming service is producing and will distribute Jolie’s adaptation of **First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers.
She’ll also work on the script adaptation, collaborating with human rights activist and author Loung Ung, who chronicled her struggle to survive the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. During a four-year reign of terror that resulted in the deaths of more than two million Cambodians, the Khmer Rouge killed the then-five-year-old Ung’s parents and sent her to be trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans while her siblings were held in labour camps.
“I was deeply affected by Loung’s book,” Jolie, going by Angelina Jolie Pitt says in a statement carried by The Wrap. “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 honoured to work alongside Loung and filmmaker Rithy Panh.” Panh will produce the film alongside the director. Jolie Pitt's son, Maddox, is also expected to be involved in some capacity.
This project will slide into Jolie Pitt’s schedule for shooting later this year, leapfrogging **Africa, her planned film about the battle against the illegal wildlife trade, which is undergoing script revisions. **First They Killed My Father **will appear on Netflix next year and is also aiming to screen at film festivals. Jolie Pitt is currently finishing By The Sea, which she wrote, directed and starred in opposite Brad Pitt. That film will arrive on December 11.