Spencer’s Pablo Larrain is directing a biopic on the life of the great opera singer Maria Callas, and Angelina Jolie will play Callas. In the 1970s, the singer spent her final, lonely years in Paris, and Maria will recount her story of victory and tragedy during that time.
The script for Maria will reportedly be written by Steven Knight, according to Variety. Larrain has stated, “Having the possibility to mix my two most profound and personal interests, movie and opera have been a long-awaited dream.” Jolie made a remark about how challenging it would be to play a famous character like Callas “The duty to Maria and her memory is one I take very seriously. My best effort will be made to conquer this obstacle.” While her breakthrough part was in 1995’s Hackers, it wasn’t until 1999’s Girl, Interrupted that Jolie began to get widespread critical acclaim and eventually an Academy Award for her performance.
She has subsequently starred in major motion pictures including Mr and Mrs Smith and Maleficent and directed many features, including the current historical thriller First They Killed My Father, about the Khmer Rouge. She was last seen in 2017’s MCU epic Eternals, and her next film, starring Salma Hayek, is Without Blood, which she will also direct.
Larrain, a Chilean, is best known internationally for directing the Stephen King miniseries Lisey’s Story and the critically acclaimed English-language features Jackie and Spencer, both of which starred Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy and Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana and were nominated for Academy Awards for their respective lead performances.
Writer/director Knight has directed three movies from his own scripts, including the Tom Hardy thriller Locke and the much-maligned Matthew McConaughey mystery Serenity, in addition to writing the screenplays for Spencer, Eastern Promises, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, and Pawn Sacrifice. What’s more, he helped develop the iconic quiz program Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Sophie Cecilia Kalos (born 1923 to Greek immigrants) became one of the most well-known opera singers of the twentieth century thanks to her unique and distinctive voice and her ability to fully enter the roles she represented. Her career was marred by controversies, notably her tumultuous relationship with her mother and a long-running romance with Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis, and she began to lose her voice in the mid-’50s, which has been ascribed to weight loss, health concerns, and psychological troubles.
She lived as a hermit for a long time before her untimely death from a heart attack in 1977, at the age of 53. Franco Zeffirelli, a close friend of hers, transformed her life into the film Callas Forever (2002), starring Fanny Ardant. Juan de Dios Larran of Fabula Pictures, Lorenzo Mieli of The Apartment Pictures (a Fremantle Company), and Jonas Dornbach of Komlizen Film will be the film’s producers.