Dean Semler/FilmDistrict and GK Films Angelina Jolie directing on the set of In the Land of Blood and Honey, about the war in Bosnia. HERES a paradox: Were finding authentic leadership these days not from our nominal leaders in Washington but from unelected (and mostly unelectable) figures whom we like to deride as self-indulgent narcissists. Congress is so paralyzed and immature, even sleazy, that we reporters sometimes leave a politicians press conference feeling the urgent need to shower. But look at university and high school students. Sure, plenty still live for a party, but a growing number have no time for beer because theyre so busy tutoring prisoners, battling sex trafficking or building wells in Africa. Even more startling, we can now turn to moral leadership from brace yourself Hollywoods most beautiful people. I know, I know. What we expect from celebrities is mostly scandalous sex lives and crackpot behavior, and some do oblige. But increasingly as our leaders debase th...

Home News RSS Feeds Photo Gallery Home > News > hollywood-news London, Dec 31 : Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has been working on a story inspired by her late mother but insists she will "never show" the project to anybody. The 36-year-old stepped behind the camera to make her directorial debut with "In The Land Of Blood And Honey", a film she penned herself about a romance between a Serbian soldier and a Bosnian woman. Now Jolie reveals she has also written a tale about her beloved mum Marcheline Bertrand, who died in 2007. "I've also written a story about my mother after she passed. They are things I will never show anybody but it is nice to spend time with people and characters in this private world," contactmusic.com quoted Jolie as saying. (IANS) Share this article at Subscribe RSS Feeds Post your comment Read other hollywood-news stories Visit Home Page for fresh content Yearly Horoscope of 2012 for the Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius ...

Angelina Jolie has announced that she will donate some of the proceeds from her new film In The Land of Blood and Honey 's soundtrack to charity. Jolie will give the money to the Bosnian organisation SOS Children's Villages, which helps disadvantaged kids in the war-torn region where In The Land of Blood and Honey is set. "We are happy that a portion of the proceeds from the film's soundtrack will support SOS Children's Villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina to provide stable, family-based homes to children, regardless of religion, ethnicity or gender, who do not have their own families to care for them," the director said of her charitable contribution. Jolie has previously revealed that making In The Land of Blood and Honey helped her learn more about the struggles of the Bosnian people . In The Land of Blood and Honey has received a 'Best Foreign Language Film' Golden Globe nomination . The film is now playing in US cinemas. A UK release date has no...

Actress-turned-director Angelina Jolie has been working on a story inspired by her late mother but insists she will "never show" the project to anybody. The Tomb Raider star stepped behind the camera to make her directorial debut with In The Land Of Blood And Honey, a film she penned herself about a romance between a Serbian soldier and a Bosnian woman. Now Jolie reveals she has also written a tale about her beloved mum Marcheline Bertrand, who died in 2007, but refuses to make it public. She says, "I've also written a story about my mother after she passed. They are things I will never show anybody but it is nice to spend time with people and characters in this private world." The Hollywood star recently admitted she has also put pen to paper for a script about Afghanistan, but maintained she lacks the "confidence" to put it into production.

Angelina Jolie has decided to buy a property in Los Angeles so her father can bond with his grandchildren. The actress and her partner Brad Pitt raise six children together and there are rumours another baby could be on the way. Angelinas relationship with her father Jon Voight has been tumultuous in the past, but they are now getting on better. She is keen for him to play a role in her kids lives so wants him to spend more time with them. Its for that reason that she has been perusing properties in Los Angeles. Angie wants to spend more time with him so he can get to know his grandkids especially if there is going to be another one, a source explained. The pair have apparently already found a property they love the home once shared by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. The couple lived there before their recent split and have now put the six bedroom house on the market. It boasts a swimming pool and fishing pond and the Hollywood stars are convinced it is the perfect choice for their fa...

Angelina is too passionate about her life to ever feel exhausted. The 36-year-old actress recently made her directorial debut with the film In the Land of Blood and Honey and also raises six children with her partner Brad Pitt. Speaking to Us Weekly, the 36-year-old star explained she doesnt find it hard to be a movie star and a mother of a large brood because her job isnt a chore. Like every woman, I think we just take time to do all the things we love, she said. Im very blessed that I love my job, I love to do charity work and I love to be with my kids, so you find the time. Youre not exhausted by it if youre passionate about it. Angelina appreciates that she has an unconventional private life but insists the concept of family is not what it used to be. The couples ten-year-old son Maddox is adopted from Cambodia, eight-year-old Pax is from Vietnam while Zahara, six, was born in Ethiopia. They also have biological kids Shiloh, five, and three-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. I think...

With Directorial Debut, Angelina Jolie Takes Audiences on Emotional Journey By Melinda Loewenstein December 27, 2011 Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images With numerous blockbusters ("Lara Croft Tomb Raider," "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," "Kung Fu Panda") and an Oscar for "Girl, Interrupted" to her name, Angelina Jolie has stepped to the other side of the camera. Her celebrity status is international, and her humanitarian work with the U.N. and marriage to Brad Pitt have only added to her high profile. With her directorial debut, Jolie is looking to divert the spotlight from herself and raise global awareness. With " In the Land of Blood and Honey ," Jolie takes on the controversial topic of the Bosnian war by setting a love story in the middle of the conflict. Falling Into the Film Jolie didn't set out to make a movie about the war. Rather, she wanted to study what happens to human beings during war to better understand post-conflict situa...

Angelina Jolie is donating a portion of the proceeds from the soundtrack of her latest film In The Land Of Blood And Honey to charity. The actress has stepped behind the camera to make her directorial debut for the movie, which she wrote about a romance between a Serbian soldier and a Bosnian woman. And Jolie, who is a keen philanthropist, has vowed to hand over some of the profits from the soundtrack to the Sos Children's Villages program in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The charity helps youths in the region who are still suffering from the impact of the Balkans war in the 1990s. Jolie says, "We are happy that a portion of the proceeds from the film's soundtrack will support Sos Children's Villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina to provide stable, family-based homes to children, regardless of religion, ethnicity or gender, who do not have their own families to care for them."

Over a joyous holiday weekend, not even Angelina Jolie could persuade audiences to show up at the multiplex to see a film about the brutal Bosnian war. The actress' directorial debut "In the Land of Blood and Honey" opened on Friday and has since grossed $27,827, according to an estimate from distributor GK Films. Playing in three locations, that amounted to a weak per-theater average of $9,276 over the four-day holiday. The movie was written, directed and produced by Jolie, who did extensive publicity to promote it on TV programs including "60 Minutes" and "Good Morning America." But the movie is told mostly in Bosnian and other Slavic languages and features actors unknown to Americans, making it a difficult sell for U.S. moviegoers. We obviously realize that the subject matter itself is very demanding, said FilmDistrict's president of theatrical distribution, Bob Berney. But Angelinas name helped tremendously in getting the word out. This appeals...

Angelina Jolie hopes her directorial debut is more than just a 'history lesson'. The Oscar-winning actress helmed and wrote Bosnian war-set love story 'In the Land of Blood and Honey', and she hopes the audience think of it as more than just a factual running of events. She said: 'I hope for the audience watching that it isn't just a history lesson, it isn't just a political film, it isn't just Bosnia. 'We tried to tell a dramatic story, we tried to make a good film with great actors, we tried to just to give traditional dramatic storytelling, and somehow in that, we also layered all these other things and it's a part of that.' Despite being pleased with the outcome of the film, she is unsure if she will ever get back in the director's chair again. She told MTV News: 'Oh I don't know. I'm still very shy about that. I still can't believe I'm even here and we did it.'

Ive always tried to step outside my comfort zone. Sometimes that can be good and useful for hopeful things like this, said actress Angelina Jolie, who has written and directed her first film. (Associated Press) Story Topics Entertainment_Culture Human Interest Story Angelina Jolie Brad Pitt Bosnia And Herzegovina Follow Us On Facebook Question of the Day Did you spend less this Christmas because of the economy? As she developed her story about lovers on opposite sides in the Bosnian War, Angelina Jolie drew on everything she had learned while traveling to combat zones. But she started at home, imagining herself and partner Brad Pitt at such extremes. In! the Lan d of Blood and Honey, Ms. Jolie s writing-directing debut, hurls two lovers a Bosnian Muslim woman and a Bosnian-Serbian man from their tender relationship before the war into the horrors of the conflict and rape camps, where brutality, betrayal and degradation are daily matters. The closest relationship in my life is Bra...

AFP Sunday, Dec 25, 2011 SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) ? Sarajevans among the first filmgoers to see Angelina Jolie's directorial debut, a Bosnian wartime love story, came away deeply moved from a special screening in their city Thursday. "The movie is very realistic, moving and hard to watch for someone who was here during the war. I am very emotional," Sabira Sokolovic told AFP. A story of love between a Muslim woman and a Serb man against the background of Bosnia's 1992-95 inter-ethnic war, the movie sparked controversy in Sarajevo earlier this year when local media speculated it would tell the story of a Muslim rape victim who fell in love with her Serb attacker. In fact the film tells the story of a couple who had a fling before the war and meet up again when the woman is taken prisoner by a unit of the Bosnian Serb army commanded by her former lover. He shields her at first but is transferred and she suffers the same abuse and rape as the other women held w...

Angelina Jolie says she remembers "looking at a blank piece of paper" and penning the script for her film "In The Land of Blood and Honey." Photos: Angelina Jolie's brother attends her premiere Angelina Jolie poses with Brad Pitt's parents Stories: Angelina Jolie sued over 'In the Land of Blood and Honey' plot Angelina Jolie: I'm still a bad girl Angelina Jolie says she and Brad Pitt are 'racing to see' who will retire first The film depicts a romance between ! a Serbia n soldier and Bosnian woman during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. It is the first feature film she ever directed and the first on-screen project she ever wrote. "Having nothing and looking at a blank piece of white paper, thinking back to that first day when I looked at a piece of white paper and started to write something for the first time, the first word, and suddenly it becomes real, is an experience I've never had," she told OnTheRedCarpet.com co-host Ch...

Weve all seen it around the way: a little girl who has braided hair extensions so that her mother doesnt have to worry about doing her hair every day. Now its Angelina Jolie who has come under fire for putting braids in her adopted daughter Zaharas hair. Hair experts such as celebrity hairstylist DaRico Jackson claims that at 6-years-old, Zahara is way too young to be rocking that look and that extensions will only breed insecurity in Zahara and point out the fact that shes different from the rest of her siblings. If Angelina wants Zahara to be in touch with her roots and have her hair braided then she can do that with the childs own hair and she doesnt need to add extensions. She is far too young for that and Angelina is creating insecurity in the little girl that what she has is not good enough. Growing up with siblings who have long flowing hair, Zahara may grow to feel that her own natural hair is not pretty enough, and that without the fake hair she is not beautiful. She should b...

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie 's directing debut is winning praise in Bosnia for its realistic portrayal of the country's bloody 1992-95 conflict. "It is a movie that shows the truth about the war in Bosnia ," Sekib Sokolovic , a professor at Sarajevo 's medical faculty told AFP after a special advance screening of the film that is due to open in the United States on Friday. "People have been asking for 20 years how it is possible to kill others like that, to torture, what drives people to commit crimes." "In the Land of Blood and Honey" is expected to hit European screens in February. "The message is universal, a message to prevent the same things from happening somewhere else," Sokolovic said. The movie sparked controversy in Bosnia earlier this year when local media speculated it would tell the story of a Muslim rape victim who fell in love with her Serb attacker. In fact the film shows a couple who had a fling before the war and ...

LOS ANGELES - Angelina Jolie didn't plan on directing a movie. But the more she learned about the 1990s Bosnia war, the more she felt responsible for bringing it home to her generation. Jolie threw her energy into In the Land of Blood and Honey , writing, co-producing and directing the complex love story set against the horror of the 1992-95 conflict in which more than 100,000 people are believed to have died. The movie, which initially stoked controversy in Bosnia, opens in US theaters on Friday and has been nominated for a Golden Globe award for foreign language film. "I didn't go into this wanting to be a director, I went into this film because I was moved by the themes," Jolie, 36, told Reuters. "It wasn't a normal film experience for me, it was an education every day in humanity and in unity, and also getting to know a culture," she said. The Oscar-winning Girl, Interrupted actress was just 17 years old and working to establish herself in Hollywood...

Angelina Jolie's directorial debut, a Bosnian wartime love story which sparked controversy here, will be shown in Sarajevo from Thursday, distributors said. The movie, a love story between a Muslim woman and a Serb man, prompted speculation in local media that it was the story of a Muslim rape victim who fell in love with her Serb attacker. It will be screened twice a day from 22 to 28 December, two months before it officially opens in Europe , the local distributor, Blitz film, said in a statement. The movie "In the Land of Blood and Honey", which the Hollywood star filmed last year, is set against the background of Bosnia 's 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war and features a number of actors from the former Yugoslavia. Speculation about the film gave rise to angry reactions from some victims' organisations, including several who have now praised the film after finally seeing it in a private screening earlier this month. The associations eventually hailed the movie as ob...

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - When actors decide to direct, it's often a dicey proposition . Some are naturals ( Clint Eastwood ) but others turn out films that are unwatchable, self-indulgent hokum (anyone else sit through Nicholas Cage 's "Sonny" in 2002?). So how does Angelina Jolie do with "In the Land of Blood and Honey," which marks her feature directing-screenwriting debut and landed her on the cover of Newsweek? It's a respectable first effort, longer on earnestness than art, though much of that is due to her choice of topic material. "Blood and Honey" is a drama set in Bosnia during and amidst the Bosnian War (1992-95). Jolie is well known for her involvement in global humanitarian causes, and here she takes on the notorious human-rights violations that occurred during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, including ethnic cleansing, genocide and mass rapes. She does so through the prism of a complicated love story, one that begins in...

For Angelina Jolie, the path to writing and directing "In the Land of Blood and Honey" was almost an inevitable one. Gaining fame and a vast fortune as an American actress in her twenties was paralleled with her increasing interest in the world at large, beginning, as she remembered during a press day in Los Angeles for the new film, "the first time that I went to a war zone." That was 11 years ago, in the months before Jolie became a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and began to use her fame to shine a light on the plight of war refugees (particularly women and children), when she visited Sierra Leone in the midst of their civil war. "I just asked to go and I was allowed to go. I spent time in Sierra Leone and that was such a brutal conflict," she recalled with a shiver. "Seeing little kids that had both their arms and legs cut off with a hatchet, stuck to a tree. I could not for the life of me understand how this was happening. It was like someon...

Dean Semler / GK Films Ajla (Zana Marjanovi) and Danijel (Goran Kosti) in a scene from "In The Land of Blood and Honey." In the Land of Blood and Honey Year: 2011 Director: Angelina Jolie Studio: FilmDistrict Actors: Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic In Angelina Jolies respectful and more than respectable directorial debut, the grimly immersive In the Land of Blood and Honey , a woman ends up in a Serbian rape camp overseen by a man she had a fleeting romance with on the eve of civil war in the former Yugoslavia. On their last encounter before the war , the pair Danijel, a Serb policeman (Goran Kostic) andAjla (Zana Marjanovic), a Muslim who aspired to be a painter seem like newcomers to each other, still strangers, but obviously entranced. This might have been their only date. They nuzzle, drink and dance to live music. Then a bomb blows out the walls of the club and put an end to everything promising between them. Their next encounter comes a few months later as Danijel bend...

Angelina Jolie is learning French. The Oscar-winning actress' six children Maddox, 10, Pax, eight, Zahara, six, Shiloh, five, and three-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne can all speak the language fluently and she wants to able to keep up with them so is having lessons. She said: "I've been writing and staying with the kids. I think I should learn French and be a better cook - basic really good life stuff. I'm always doing something. I never shut my brain off. I always have something going on. "I've been studying French on and off my whole life, and I figured, my kids can speak it, and it's embarrassing that I can't as well as they can, so now" Angelina whose late mother Marcheline Bertrand had French-Canadian ancestry - is more determined than ever to learn the language and says it has become a priority in her life. Although it is difficult, Angelina who is in a long-term relationship with Brad Pitt - is confident she will be able to master it...

Angelina Jolie Courtesy Marie Claire Six kids and counting? Angelina Jolie says that, while she's thrilled with her family life as it is, she and partner Brad Pitt haven't ruled out having more children entirely. "Nothing planned at the moment, but we just don't know. I could end up pregnant," Jolie, 36, tells Marie Claire in its January issue. According to the Oscar winner, who recently made her directorial debut with In the Land of Blood and Honey , the home life she's built with Pitt, 47, has taught her invaluable lessons of selflessness. "I suppose what I've learned from Brad is to be able to have the kind of family whose happiness and well-being comes before your own," she says in the interview. "I'm very, very grateful to have such a loving family, and I wouldn't have that without him." And though the couple won't be getting married anytime soon, Jolie says they already have the strongest bond possible. "[Br...

We are coming up on bad times. Nationalism is surging throughout Europe. In the Arab world, spring is suddenly winter and the sects, the tribes, the clans, the religious, the very religious and the military are taking a step back, eyeing one another for the coming rumble. Now comes a strong and wholly gripping film by Angelina Jolie about the 1990s ugly war in Bosnia. I do not know if its about what has passed or what is coming. I fear the latter. The film is called In the Land of Blood and Honey , and its something of a pity that it does not star Jolie but was instead directed and written by her. (Those who think pretty equals dumb will be sorely disappointed by this movie.) The actors speak only Serbo-Croatian (with English subtitles), and the movie stars local actors. The audience for this movie hardly exists. Richard Cohen Cohen writes about politics in a weekly column and on the PostPartisan blog. Archive Dana Milbank Newtonian nastiness Eugene Robinson Here comes the sun And yet ...

Getty Images Universal has picked up North American rights to the untitled Angelina Jolie - Luc Besson drama. Jolie will star in the project, which is described as a dramatic thriller with action.and is said to be a cross between Besson's own much-admired movies The Professional and The Fifth Element. Besson wrote the screenplay for the new project and will produce and direct. The studio is touting this as Bessons return to the genre in which he made his name. Universal picked up 80 percent of worldwide distribution rights to the project, which answers the question of what movie Jolie will do next. PHOTOS: Angelina Jolie and Hollywood's 10 Highest-Paid Actresses The actress, who has her directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey opening Dec. 23, has several projects vying for her attention. The high-profile ones include a biopic of Gertrude Bell and Scarpetta , the latter which is set up at Fox. Universal has been tracking the development of the Bell biopic, which has R...

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