Angelina Jolie to direct biopic about wartime photographer Don McCullin

PTI, Nov 20, 2020, 11:00 AM IST

Los Angeles: Angelina Jolie is set to direct a biopic about legendary war photographer Don McCullin.

Titled “Unreasonable Behaviour,” the film is based on the British photographer’s bestselling autobiography of the same name.

According to The Guardian, the project is being produced by Tom Hardy and Dean Baker under their Hardy Son & Baker banner alongside Working Title Films’ Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

McCullin and Mark George are executive producing

BAFTA-nominated screenwriter Gregory Burke is penning the screenplay

“I am humbled to have a chance to bring Don McCullin’s life to film. I was drawn to his unique combination of fearlessness and humanity – his absolute commitment to witnessing the truth of war, and his empathy and respect for those who suffer its consequences. We hope to make a film that is as uncompromising as Don’s photography, about the extraordinary people and events he witnessed, and the rise and fall of a unique era in journalism,” Jolie said.

McCullin, whose six-decade-long career spans world-renowned coverage of the Vietnam War, said Jolie’s work on Loung Ung’s memoir “First They Killed My Father” – about the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1970s Cambodia – convinced him that his life story was in “safe and capable” hands.

“Having viewed Angelina’s last film on Cambodia (and having spent so much time during the war there) I was very impressed at how she made such a powerful and accurate representation of the place at that time. I feel as if I am in safe, capable and professional hands with her,” he said.

“Unreasonable Behaviour” is Jolie’s fifth scripted feature as a director, following “In the Land of Blood and Honey” (2011), “Unbroken” (2014), “By the Sea” (2015), “First They Killed My Father” (2017).