If at first you don't succeed…
Last year's big Universal Pictures/Angelina Jolie (Pitt) prestige fall/winter release, “Unbroken,” didn't exactly make Oscar season waves upon arrival. But the actress/filmmaker was hard at work on her follow-up throughout, so I'm sure that did a lot to take her mind off how many nominations the film wasn't receiving (and how many nasty things were being said about her in hacked corporate emails). And so she and the studio will give it another go later this year with “By the Sea,” starring Jolie and husband Brad Pitt.
Universal has announced that the film will be released November 13 domestically. Written, directed and produced by Jolie Pitt, the film also stars Mélanie Laurent, Niels Arestrup, Melvil Poupaud and Richard Bohringer. It follows an American writer named Roland (Pitt) and his wife Vanessa (Jolie Pitt), who arrive in a tranquil and picturesque seaside resort in 1970s France, their marriage in apparent crisis, according to an official synopsis. As they spend time with fellow travelers, including young newlyweds Lea (Laurent) and François (Poupaud), and village locals Michel (Arestrup) and Patrice (Bohringer), the couple begins to come to terms with unresolved issues in their own lives.
The release says that in the film's style and its treatment of “themes of the human experience,” “By the Sea” is inspired by European cinema and theater of the 1960s and 1970s. Jolie Pitt also added that it is “a story about a relationship derailed by loss, the tenacity of love, and the path to recovery and acceptance.”
Besides “By the Sea,” Universal will also be pitching Guillermo del Toro's “Crimson Peak” for awards later this year. That, of course, is an interesting note after del Toro's real-life hombres Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Birdman”) saw such Oscar luck in the last two years.
In addition, there's Danny Boyle's “Steve Jobs.” Starring Michael Fassbender in the title role (and, speaking earlier of those hacked emails, the very project that left Sony behind), you can probably expect that one to pop up at the New York Film Festival and get the ball rolling from there.
Once again, “By the Sea” hits theaters Nov. 13.