As reported by Variety, Netflix has hired Angelina Jolie to direct First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers. The film will be an adaptation of Cambodian author Loung Ung’s memoir, who co-wrote the script with Jolie. The story is based on Ung’s life as a five-year-old living under the Khmer Rouge regime, which forced her family into labor camps and trained her to be a child soldier. As Variety tells it, Jolie read Ung’s book “over a decade ago,” and the pair became close friends and started working on making it into a movie shortly after that. As for why she went with Netflix, Jolie cited the fact that it will help the film “reach so many people,” adding that “films like this are hard to watch but important to see.” One of Jolie’s sons, Maddox, was born in Cambodia, and he’ll also be involved in the film’s production in some capacity.
First They Killed My Father is set to be released in late 2016.