Pablo Larrain is accustomed to making waves at Venice. Recently, he’s been focusing attention on powerful, iconic women of the 20th century, earning accolades for himself and his lead actresses. The latest is Angelina Jolie who looks poised for her third Oscar nomination (she won Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted in 1998) for Maria, in which she plays the legendary opera singer Maria Callas in her final days.
Directed by Larrain from a Steven Knight script, Maria takes place in the 1970s as Maria Callas, the famed opera diva, was spending her final years in Paris. Jolie spent months training her voice for the role, and while much of the vocals are taken from audio recordings, Jolie’s voice is in there, as well.
Larrain previously directed Natalie Portman in Jackie, for which she earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for playing Jackie Onassis Kennedy. That was followed by Spencer, also written by Knight, which earned Kristen Stewart an Oscar nom for playing Princess Diana. Jolie feels like a shoe-in to follow in their footsteps.
Joining Jolie in the cast are Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, Valeria Golino, and Haluk Bilginer.
Maria opens in theaters on November 27th, followed by Netflix on December 11th.
