Angelina Jolie Pitt Directing Netflix Original Movie

BEVERLY HILLS: Angelina Jolie Pitt is signed on to direct an adaptation of First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers as an original movie for Netflix. 

The film will be based on the memoir of Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung about surviving the deadly Khmer Rouge regime. Jolie Pitt will direct and produce from a script she co-adapted with Ung. Acclaimed Cambodian director and producer Rithy Panh, director of the Oscar-nominated best foreign-language film The Missing Picture, will also serve as a producer.

The movie will be made available to Netflix members in late 2016. It will be released in both Khmer and English.

“Films like this are hard to watch but important to see,” said Jolie Pitt. “They are also hard to get made. Netflix is making this possible, and I am looking forward to working with them and excited that the film will reach so many people.” 

“We are proud to be working with Angelina Jolie in bringing this emotionally powerful and ultimately uplifting story exclusively to Netflix members around the world,” added Netflix's chief content officer, Ted Sarandos. “Loung Ung’s incredible journey is a testament to the human spirit and its ability to transcend even the toughest circumstances.”

"Angelina and I met in 2001 in Cambodia, and immediately, I trusted Angelina's heart," commented Ung. "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."