Angelina Jolie Pitt will direct a feature adaptation of Loung Ung’s memoir, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers, for Netflix.
The memoir describes how Loung Ung survived the Khmer Rouge regime, which took power in Cambodia in 1975 when she was five years old.
Jolie Pitt has co-written the feature adaptation with Loung Ung and will also produce, along with leading Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh (The Missing Picture).
Netflix plans to submit the Khmer and English-language film to major international film festivals before streaming it in late 2016. Jolie Pitt said the company’s global reach was a factor in partnering with the streaming service.
“Films like this are hard to watch but important to see,” she said in a Netflix statement. “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.
Jolie Pitt plans to start shooting the film in Cambodia later this year, before starting work on Africa, about Dr. Richard Leakey and his fight against Africa’s illegal wildlife trade. She is currently in post-production on By The Sea, in which she stars with Brad Pitt.
Netflix also recently announced that it would kick off its original film initiative with Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts Of No Nation, which will stream on the Netflix platform from October 16 simultaneously with its release in select US theatres through Bleecker Street. Starring Idris Elba, the film tells the story of a child solider in Africa
Netflix’s original movie release slate also includes The Ridiculous Six, starring Adam Sandler, on December 11; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend in the first quarter of 2016; and Pee-wee’s Big Holiday in March 2016.