As she gets ready to make Unbroken, her second film as a director, Angelina Jolie is doing a Supermarket Sweep-style grab for young actors to add to an already impressive ensemble. The latest name in her thespian basket is Tron Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund.
He’ll join Domhnall Gleeson, Jack O’Connell and Finn Wittrock in the film, which boasts a script featuring contributions from the likes of Richard LaGravenese, William Nicholson and, more recently, the Coens. It's adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s book about American track star Louis Zamperini.
O'Connell is set to play the LA high school athlete who raced in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. During World War II, his Air Force plane crashed in the Pacific. He survived without food and water for 28 days, enduring shark attacks, gunfire and hunger. He finally washed ashore on a Japanese island behind enemy lines, where he was held as a prisoner of war for two years and tortured by his captors.
Hedlund is on as the leader of the prisoners at the camp, so expect plenty of tough-guy resistance to their captors. In behind-the-scenes news, Jolie has recruited Roger Deakins to bring his ace cinematographic skills to the film - so however the story turns out, you know it's going to look glorious. They should be kicking off filming soon.
Hedlund, meanwhile, will next be seen in the Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis, which hits our screens on January 24.