Because if Angelina Jolie isn’t having fun, no one’s having any fun, the actress/director/activist has chosen another depressing-yet-undeniably-important topic as the subject of her next movie. Jolie has signed on to direct Africa, from a script by Oscar-winning The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button screenwriter Eric Roth; the film tells the story of paleo-archaeologist Richard Leakey’s struggle against ivory poachers in Kenya in the late ’80s.
Africa will reunite Jolie with cinematographer Roger Deakins, who recently worked on Jolie’s Louis Zamperini biopic, Unbroken. The film is being produced by David Ellison’s Skydance Pictures. Skydance usually specializes in big-budget action fare like G.I. Joe: Retaliation and next summer’s Terminator: Genisys, but Ellison is eager to expand into prestige pictures as well, presumably to show his sister she’s not the only one in the family who can get nominated for an Oscar. Rejected topics for Angelina Jolie’s next directorial effort include a gritty reboot of The Little Match Girl, Blackfish: The Musical, and a time-lapse video of the North Pole melting.