Pablo Larrain’s biographical drama “Maria” is reportedly on track to film from October to December this year with pre-production underway in Hungary according to The Budapest Reporter (via World of Reel).
Angelina Jolie will headline the film which follows the lively and tragic story of famed opera singer Maria Callas and follows her during her final days in solitude in 1970s Paris.
A Greek immigrant in New York, Callas rose to be the most celebrated soprano of her time and the long-time paramour of Greek ship magnate Aristotle Onassis.
Onassis left her to marry Jackie Kennedy and Callas moved to Italy, then to France. She never fully recovered from the betrayal and died of a heart attack at age 52.
The project is being penned by “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight and served as something of a biopic trilogy capper for Larrain following the Natalie Portman-led “Jackie” and Kristen Stewart-led “Spencer”.
Before he begins work, Larrain is flying to Venice to support his black comedy “El Conde” (“The Count”) in competition at the festival ahead of a release on Netflix later this year.
That film centers on the premise that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet never died. Instead, he’s a vampire who seeks death after two-and-a-half centuries. The film will also explore political events in Chile over the past five decades.
Jolie is finishing post-production on her latest directorial effort “Without Blood” starring Salma Hayek.
