Netflix Acquires Pablo Larraín’s ‘Maria’ Starring Angelina Jolie for U.S. Distribution
On the eve of its world premiere at the 81st Venice Film Festival, Netflix announced it had secured U.S. rights to Maria, director Pablo Larraín’s biopic of legendary American opera singer Maria Callas, starring Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted).
The film reunites Larraín with Spencer screenwriter Steven Knight, which earned a Best Actress nomination for Kristen Stewart playing Princess Diana, and cinematographer Ed Lachman, whose lensing of last year’s El Conde earned him an Oscar nomination. Maria marks the seventh production partnership between Fabula and Netflix, including Maite Alberdi’s upcoming film In Her Place.
Maria chronicles the life of Maria Callas with a creative imagining and psychological portrait that brings his evocative trilogy of exploring the lives of three of the 20th century’s most captivating women that began with Natalie Portman in her Oscar-nominated role as first lady Jackie Kennedy in 2016’s Jackie. Split between the height of her career and the end of it, the film takes place in the ’70s in Italy as she strives for a comeback. A story about a woman that lived from the 1920s to 1970s, a woman who burned her voice, her life, by doing what she loved. Callas provides the vocals for her early years while Jolie’s own singing voice is used for the 1970s.
“I’m excited to partner again with the Netflix team who care so passionately about movies. This film is my most personal work yet,” said Larraín. “It is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas who, after dedicating her life to performing for audiences around the world, decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself. I’m deeply honored to tell this story and share it with audiences worldwide like Maria did with her life.”
“We are delighted that Pablo Larraín’s extraordinary piece of filmmaking, Maria, with its incredible performance by Angelina Jolie, has found its US home at Netflix. I know they will give it the best possible support and we are grateful to Glen and his FilmNation team for spearheading the sale.,” said Andrea Scrosati, Group COO & CEO Continental Europe of Fremantle.
Academy Award nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino and Valeria Golino co-star with Juan de Dios Larraín, Lorenzo Mieli and Jonas Dornbach as producers.
Larraín rose to prominence aa Chilean film director, producer, and screenwriter, as well as a founding partner of Fabula, a company dedicated to film and television production, commercials, podcasts, and production services. He was nominated for the Academy Awards in 2013 for Best International Feature Film with No, and for the Golden Globe Awards in 2015 for The Club and in 2016 for Neruda, both in the same category. Larraín began his directing career in 2005 with the feature film Fuga, and since then, he has directed a wide range of acclaimed movies, exploring relevant themes with a focus on social criticism. The filmmaker gained international recognition with films like Tony Manero (2008), Post Mortem (2010), and No (2012), with the latter winning the “Best Film” award at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival 2012 and receiving an Oscar nomination for “Best International Feature Film.”
Maria is also a featured Spotlight of the 62nd New York Film Festival. Theatrical and streaming release dates are expected soon.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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