Angelina Jolie-Pitt is on a roll with her directorial career, and she is now set to direct a new Netflix movie entitled "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers."
It is based on the same-titled book written by Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung, and it tells her own story of survival during the deadly Khmer Rouge regime, according to Variety.
Jolie-Pitt co-adapted the script with Ung, while Cambodian director and producer Rithy Panh, who is responsible for the Oscar-nominated foreign language film "The Missing Picture" will be the movie's producer.
The "Cambodia" movie will be extra special for the actress slash director since it will include her Cambodian-born son Maddox.
Ung was only five years old when the story starts - the Khmer Rouge regime assumed power over Cambodia in 1975 and began their four-year reign of terror and genocide, killing almost two million Cambodians in the process.
Ung was forced to flee from her family's home in Phnom Penh, and she was then trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans. Her six other siblings, on the other hand, were sent to labor camps.
After the ordeal, Ung narrated her struggles in the book "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers," which was first published in 2000. When Jolie-Pitt read the book over a decade ago, she was so moved by the story that she contacted Ung, and they have become friends ever since.
"I was deeply affected by Loung's book," Jolie-Pitt said. "It deepened forever my understanding of how children experience war and are affected by the emotional memory of it. And it helped me draw closer still to the people of Cambodia, my son's homeland. It is a dream come true to be able to adapt this book for the screen, and I'm honored to work alongside Loung and filmmaker Rithy Panh."
Jolie-Pitt added that films such as the one they will be undertaking are hard to watch and hard to get made, but important to see.
"Netflix is making this possible, and I am looking forward to working with them and excited that the film will reach so many people," she said. The film will be released in both Khmer and English.
For her part, Ung says that she trusts Jolie-Pitt's heart and has no doubt that her story will be honored through the film.
"Through the years, we have become close friends, and my admiration for Angelina as a woman, a mother, a filmmaker and a humanitarian has only grown. It is with great honor that I entrust my family's story to Angelina to adapt into a film," she said.
