Picture: Pablo Larraín / Netflix
Best known for producing and directing titles like Jackie (2016), Spencer (2021), and Netflix’s El Conde, Pablo Larraín is back with his new biopic on legendary opera singer Maria Callas.
Debuting at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, which kicks off today, Maria is one of the big-name titles that’ll be making its world premiere at the festival. It’ll also be showcased at the New York Film Festival.
Maria is set in the 1970s, near the end of Callas’ life, and takes a deep dive into the psyche of a woman who lived from the 1920s to the 1970s. The film focuses on a period when Callas had lost that defining quality and was striving to reclaim it.
Written by Academy Award nominee Steven Knight (currently working with Netflix on two new projects: House of Guinness and the Peaky Blinders movie), Maria is produced by Juan de Dios Larraín, Lorenzo Mieli, and Jonas Dornbach under the banners of The Apartment (a Fremantle company), Fabula, and Komplizen, in collaboration with Fremantle.
Photo credit: Pablo Larraín / Netflix
The cinematography is helmed by Academy Award nominee Edward Lachman (El Conde, Carol), and the film has a runtime of 2 hours and 3 minutes.
The film boasts a stellar cast, led by Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, alongside Academy Award nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Valeria Golino. This marks Jolie’s second collaboration with Netflix following her 2017 directed movie First They Killed My Father.
Pablo Larraín expresses his enthusiasm for this latest project: “I’m excited to partner again with the Netflix team who care so passionately about movies. This film is my most personal work yet. It is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas who, after dedicating her life to performing for audiences around the world, decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself. I’m deeply honored to tell this story and share it with audiences worldwide like Maria did with her life.”
Dan Lin, Netflix’s Chairman of Film, added, “I’m excited that we are continuing to work with Pablo and Fabula – this is our seventh project with them, most recently with ‘El Conde,’ and they are producing the upcoming ‘In Her Place.’ Pablo continues a remarkable streak of exploring iconic women through film, this time with the incredible Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas.”
Photo credit: Pablo Larraín / Netflix
No release date has yet been revealed for the Netflix release, which is currently planned only for the United States. The distributors for other regions are unknown at this time.
Netflix TUDUM writer John DiLillo first reported the news.
Will you be checking out Maria when it drops on Netflix? Let us know down below.
