Forget About Oscars: Angelina Jolie & Luc Besson Team Up For Dramatic Thriller With "Scientific Elements"

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by Kevin Jagernauth
December 6, 2011 4:49 PM
10 Comments

With neither Angelina Jolie's "In The Land Of Blood And Honey" or Luc Besson's "The Lady" looking like big awards season players this year, it seems the pair have decided to say "Fuck it" to chasing statues and are going to go back in getting some asses in seats.

Deadline reports that Jolie's next film will be an unspecified "dramatic thriller" that Besson will direct. There are no plot details at the moment, but the film will apparently harken back to Besson's glory years work like "The Professional," "La Femme Nikita" and "The Fifth Element." It will apparently contain "scientfic elements" and it's moving fast, with a spring shoot being eyed. A stateside studio is expected to land the Europacorp produced film soon.

Besson teased about this project way back in 2010, when he said he was aiming for a 2013-2014 release (which seems doable) and that movie was going to be ' 'The Fifth Element' to the power of 10.' Damn.

So what does this mean for stuff like "Cleopatra," "Maleficient" and the recently announced "Gertrude Bell" biopic? It's all going on the backburner for the moment, though the latter film is expected to find a studio home soon, likely with the Besson project.

And while it may seem pretty awesome that Jolie and Besson are pairing up, just a couple of notes. Jolie's last couple efforts at multiplex fare were the turgid "The Tourist" and the ridiculous (though succesful) "Salt" (which Sony would like to make a sequel to). And Besson hasn't exercised his old school action muscles in quite a long time, though his hand in producing stuff like "Taken" and this year's "Colombiana" (itself, more or less an unofficial sequel to "The Professional") has at least kept his head in the game. Jolie + Besson...you've got some expectations to live up to guys.

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10 Comments

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revng | December 7, 2011 1:18 AMReply

FYI The Tourist Worldwide: $278,346,189 seems to me some butts found their way into the seats of a non-action movie.

Kevin, no journalism school for you? Otherwise you could have found a better way to communicate than a potty mouth and failed attempt at sarcasm.
Guest | December 6, 2011 7:47 PMReply

Jolie's film could still be a contender. The reactions I've seen so far are outstanding.
Kevin | December 6, 2011 7:32 PMReply

It has been screening for critics for a while now. Buzz is that the film is good, but just an awards season player.
Tara | December 6, 2011 5:48 PMReply

Jolie can't put butts in seats unless she's doing a dumb action flick.
Effoffhater | January 3, 2012 12:51 AM

She's got multiple Oscar nods to her. Fedit, and an Oscar at home, if her action flicks put butts in seats, and she can turn around and do a mighty heart, changeling, or ITLOBAH, then that's just good business sense. What's she supposed to do, nix the 20 mil paydays, and 300+ mil grosses? Clooney would give his left nut sack gladly to go back and forth like Jolie. Fck off loser.
padre | December 6, 2011 5:48 PMReply

SUPERSTAR and GODDESS Angelina Jolie can do it all! Shame on you for implying otherwise! She'll rack up the awards statues AND the popcorn crowd. Do not doubt her power!! But every day that Cleopatra is delayed, and angel dies :(
padre | December 6, 2011 5:53 PM

correction: "AN angel dies". Misspellings galore because I'm typing through my tears!!! I need the Cleopatra movie in my life!!! I want to see some of that old timey epic-ness unleashed!!!
easy company | December 6, 2011 5:41 PMReply

just a friendly reminder playlist-you already wrote about this movie before when besson talked about it last year
http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010/10/luc-besson-to-direct-massive-sci-fi.html
Kevin | December 6, 2011 5:42 PM

Damn, thanks for the reminder.
Hilda G. | December 6, 2011 5:35 PMReply

I hope Angelina Jolie does more movies from now on. She does too few movies now even though she is currently attached to 6 other projects which are in various stages of development.