‘Maria’ marks the completion of an unofficial trilogy from Pablo Larraín
Renowned for making biographical dramas on strong female figures, Pablo Larraín’s latest offering, Maria, was well received at its Venice Film Festival debut and will now make its way to Telluride and New York.
Written by Steven Knight (Locke, Peaky Blinders), the distribution rights of the biopic were acquired by Netflix, which plans to release the movie in the U.S. at a “later date.” In the U.K., the movie will be released by Studiocanal, which hasn’t revealed an exact timeline for the release either.
Starring Angelina Jolie as American-Greek soprano Maria Callas, the film traces the final years of the artist’s life when she was living in Paris. The film predominantly has a European cast, which features Valeria Golino (The Beautiful Game), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog), Alba Rohrwacher (La Chimera), and Pierfrancesco Favino (Adagio).
Maria completes Larraín’s unofficial trilogy of films based on iconic female figures who’ll be remembered throughout history. Jackie (2016) and Spencer (2021) are the other two entries in the “trilogy,” starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy and Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, respectively.
Jolie was confirmed to be playing Maria’s titular character in October 2022, with filming commencing in Budapest exactly a year later. Jolie’s last film role was in the critically panned Marvel tentpole Eternals, which was released in 2021. The American actress has diverted her efforts in the last few years toward filmmaking instead, and her latest directorial venture, Without Blood, is currently in search of a distributor. Described as a war drama, the movie stars Salma Hayek, Juan Minujin, and Demián Bichir.
Larraín, meanwhile, is fresh off directing the 2023 black comedy horror movie El Conde, which puts a crazy twist on former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, portraying him as a 250-year-old vampire seeking death. The project premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2023 and landed a Netflix release a few days later on September 15, eventually earning an Oscar nomination for cinematography.
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