Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas

After a two-year break, the Oscar winner is returning to the big screen. Angelina Jolie will play the opera singer Maria Callas, as the first pictures show.

A few weeks ago, Angelina Jolie gave rare personal insights in an interview. The actress explained that since her separation from Brad Pitt in the fall of 2016, she had taken a step back from her career so that she would not be away from home and her children for too long.

It’s been two years since her last film, the Marvel film “Eternals” was released in cinemas in November 2021. Now the Oscar winner is returning to the big screen – with an iconic role. Angelina Jolie will portray the legendary opera singer Maria Callas. The biopic “Maria” is directed by Pablo Larraín, who also directed “Spencer” and “Jackie”.

Angelina Jolie as opera icon Maria Callas

Filming is currently taking place in Paris, Budapest and Milan, among others. The first photos from the set have now been published, showing the leading actress in her role. In one picture, Angelina Jolie can be seen in a glamorous look, in another she is hardly recognizable with thick horn-rimmed glasses and a beige knitted sweater.

According to Deadline, Angelina Jolie’s costumes are based on Callas’ original outfits. The production consulted with animal welfare organizations such as PETA about using old fur pieces from the archives of costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini and consciously decided not to use or procure any new fur.

According to the US industry magazine “Deadline”, “Maria” will focus on the singer’s last days in Paris in the 1970s and will retell the “turbulent, wonderful and tragic story” of the opera icon. The script was completed before the writers’ strike was written by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”).

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Angelina Jolie plays opera singer Maria Callas in biopic

The first photos show Hollywood star Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas with oversized glasses and a sophisticated hat. The biopic “Maria” is directed by Chilean director Pablo Larrain.

Maria Callas was without a doubt one of the most important sopranos of the 20th century. Born in New York in 1923 as the daughter of Greek emigrants, she thrilled international opera audiences and was also repeatedly in the headlines with her love life. A life that definitely provides enough material for a film. Filming began on Monday for a biopic about Callas entitled “Maria”, the soprano is played by Hollywood star Angeline Jolie. The two women already have full lips and a prominent jawline in common.

The production company Fremantle put the first photos online at the start of shooting of the film by Chilean director Pablo Larrain (“Spencer”, “Jackie”). They show Jolie as Callas with oversized glasses, once elegant with a hat.

“Maria” tells the “eventful, beautiful and tragic story” of the opera singer at the end of her life in Paris in the 1970s, where the soprano died of heart failure in 1977 at the age of just 53, the production company announced via Instagram. Director Larrain is very happy about the start of filming, writes “Deadline.com”. He hopes his film will convey the singer’s “impressive life and work” to viewers around the world. The director thanked, among others, author Steven Knight (“Spencer,” “Peaky Blinders”) for a “great” script and Jolie for her “brilliant work and exceptional preparation” for the role.

With Favino, Smit-McPhee and Golino

According to the film portal, filming will take place in Paris, Milan, Budapest and Greece. In addition to Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Valeria Golino also star. Protagonist Jolie was last seen in the Marvel film “Eternals” in the supporting role of fighter Thena in 2021. Larrain previously looked back on the life of the British Princess Diana with the drama “Spencer” (2021) and on Jacqueline Kennedy with “Jackie” (2016).