Angelina Jolie to Direct Salma Hayek in 'Without Blood'

Etonline.com: Dust off the director's chair and hop on the plane, Angelina Jolie is in Italy this month to direct her newest film, Without Blood. The movie will be Jolie's fifth as a director, and her first for the three-year filmmaking agreement she signed with the Fremantle production company in March.

In addition to directing, Jolie also wrote and produced Without Blood. The cast will include Academy Award nominees Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir, and the group will film in the Puglia and Basilicata regions of southern Italy, as well as in Rome. 

Based on the novel by Alessandro Baricco, the film takes place during the aftermath of an unidentified conflict in the Italian countryside. The one survivor is a 4-year-old girl, Nina, whose story forces the reader to explore truths of war, trauma, memory and healing. 

"I'm honored to be here in Italy to bring this very special material to film, and to have been entrusted by Alessandro Baricco with the adaptation of his book, with its unique poetry and emotion and way of looking at war, and the questions it poses about what we search for after trauma or loss or injustice," Jolie said in a statement on Thursday. 

Jennifer Mullin, Global CEO at Freemantle, also expressed her enthusiasm for Jolie and the project. "We are excited to work with [Jolie] and the incredible international team she has assembled," Mullin said in the statement. "This project underlines Fremantle's ongoing commitment to producing high-quality feature films and original dramas working with the very best talent from across the globe."