Angelina Jolie Says Her Afghanistan War Script Is "Ready To Go" If Financing Comes Through

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by Jen Vineyard
December 20, 2011 4:56 PM
3 Comments

In a recent "60 Minutes" interview to promote her writing and directorial debut "In the Land of Blood and Honey," Angelina Jolie let slip that she had another project in the wings for her next time behind the camera, what the news program called a war movie set in Afghanistan. So when The Playlist had a moment with Jolie after her 'Blood and Honey' press conference, we asked what that was about.

"I did a tiny mention of this thing that's sitting in my desk as an experiment," Jolie said. "I wrote something, but I didn't really intend on telling anybody about it!" Jolie confided that she still feels really new at being a writer and a director, despite the one film under her belt, so she didn't want to seem like she was boasting. "I haven't shown it to anybody yet," she said. "I don't even know if it's good or bad yet. I don't have the confidence to believe that I'm a director, and I don't think of myself as a writer or a director yet."

Still, she said, she has a script finished based on her travels to both Afghanistan and Pakistan. She started visiting the region prior to 9/11, and since then, "I've been tracking it for ten years," in her work for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Jolie said her story is inspired by her visits with refugees fleeing the conflict, as well as females in the military, most of whom she met while they were wounded in hospitals. "There's something in my mind to cross these two themes," she said. "One side would be the female military, and one side would be the refugees."

Although 'Blood and Honey' was also a love story, Jolie doesn't envision this untitled project in the same way, although different kinds of love might be involved. "There's love of yourself, love of country, love of a child, love between a man and a woman," she said. "It can be about how that love gets tested, and how war can tear apart people who feel kindness and love, how war forces you to leave that love behind."

Jolie cautioned that "nothing is definite" just yet, but she is "ready to go" if financing comes through. "Certainly, if somebody said, 'Here, you have the funding and the support. What do you want to do tomorrow?' I'm ready to go," she said.

"In The Land Of Blood And Honey" opens on December 23rd.

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KitCon | December 21, 2011 12:56 AMReply

The females in the military angle sounds the more interesting of the two and isn't an obvious extension of her humanitarian interests. The next question is whether she'll cast herself in it now that her story involves Americans.
padre | December 20, 2011 6:03 PMReply

How can one actress be so awesome?
Mirjana Van Blaricom | December 20, 2011 5:39 PMReply

Before you make any decision about filming in Afghanistan, please see the documentary RESTREPO by the late Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger. Junger is currently in Libya, but he would be a great advisor. Best to you in your future endeavors, Mirjana Van Blaricom