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ANGELINA Jolie brought central Sydney to a standstill as she
celebrated her latest film’s world premiere in the country where it was
made.
Fans began assembling on Market Street opposite the State Theatre
five hours before Jolie’s appearance on the red carpet for the debut of
her second film as a director,
Unbroken.
Jolie arrived in a
black Range Rover with husband Brad Pitt, who touched down late on
Sunday in a private jet from Japan, where he was promoting his new film
Fury. Dressed in a lace strapless gown, Jolie, 39, took selfies with her Australian fans.
Jolie
adapted, with the help of the Coen brothers and Richard LaGravenese,
the true-life tale of American Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini, who was
stranded on a raft for 47 days during World War II.
The sweeping tale, in which Zamperini also endured torture while in a POW camp, was adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s bestseller
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption.
Last night’s premiere did not feature the usual list of celebrities.
Instead, Jolie and Australian distributor Universal Pictures invited
Australians who have demonstrated great resilience or achieved great
things.
They included burns survivor Turia Pitt, founder of Youth
Off The Streets Father Chris Riley, shark attack survivor Paul De
Gelder, orphanage founder Geraldine Cox, Gabi Hollows and Afghanistan
veteran Damien Thomlinson.
Jolie led her two young stars, Jack
O’Connell, who plays Zamperini, and Miyavi, who plays Louis’s Japanese
tormentor, “The Bird”. Australians in the cast include Jai Courtney,
Alex Russell, Morgan Griffin and hundreds of extras. Jolie shot the
movie across NSW and Queensland. Werris Creek in northern NSW doubled
for Zamperini’s American childhood home. Sydney’s Fox Studios and
Queensland’s Village Roadshow Studios were also used.
Jolie and Pitt are to star alongside each other in a romance,
By the Sea, also to be directed by Jolie. The last time they appeared on screen together was in
Mr and Mrs Smith,
during which they fell in love. The couple relocated to Sydney and
Queensland during filming, along with their six children, who also
arrived in Australia on Sunday.
3:14 AM PST 11/17/2014 by Pip Bulbeck
Angelina Jolie was joined by husband
Brad Pitt at the world premiere of her sophomore feature as a director, the
Louis Zamperini biopic
Unbroken, at a traffic stopping event at Sydney’s historic State Theatre Monday night.
Jolie, who stunned in a strapless floor length black lace Gucci gown,
and Pitt worked the Sydney street for half an hour before the films
screening, taking innumerable selfies with thousands of fans who turned
out to see the pair.
Unbroken stars Jack O’Connell, Japanese actor and musician
Miyavi and producer
Matt Baer, joined Jolie and Pitt at the black tie event as did Sydney natives and fellow Hollywood filmmakers
George Miller, John Seale, Don McAlpine and
Jan Chapman.
Jolie said she was thrilled to bring the premiere of the film, which
is garnering Oscar buzz, back to Australia after shooting the film in
Sydney and other locations around the country a year ago. But she
admitted the scope and emotional intensity of the film was “an
extraordinary challenge” for her as director.
Unbroken tells the story of Zamperini (O'Connell), an
Olympic runner and WW2 veteran who was interred in a brutal Japanese
prisoner of war camp after surviving 47 days stranded in the Pacific
Ocean on a raft.
“I knew I was drawn to this story, but I didn’t realise how much I
needed it and how much it would change my life. Louis made me think
differently about life and how to survive things but as a director it
was really difficult, an extraordinary challenge,” Jolie told
THR.
“You are dealing with real history which is difficult but also
pleasure because you get an education. But technically this film is very
demanding. It has hundreds of visual effects, it has a shark attack,
plane crashes, even the [Olympic] races," she said.
“I remember waking up one morning thinking how do I shoot a race,
there’s a specific way a director does that and I’m not sure I’m ready
so I had to sit up for days and try and learn. You have so much to
learn, from the speed of the flash in the B24 bombers flying and I had
to be the one to have the answer on it, so it was a great challenge,"
said Jolie.
After many years developing
Unbroken, Jolie and producer
Matt Baer were keen to communicate the message behind
Zamperini's experiences. “We wanted to shed a light on a story like
Louis to remind us all that there is a strength in each of us...that we
can do anything.”
For his part Baer told
THR Jolie was “a blessing and a dream
for the project. She had a very clear vision from the start, we
assembled an amazing team of actors, writers and cinematographer
Roger Deakins. Angelina was the best thing that could have happened to
Unbroken and my own journey in trying to get Louis Zamperini’s story told”.
"Angelina directed something that’s very in keeping with the spirit of Louis,” O’Connell added.
Unbroken is released in the U.S. on Dec. 25
