Angelina Jolie was in Pyrgos on Sunday morning, specifically at the Apollo Theatre.
The actress who will play the tremendous Greek soprano, Maria Callas, in the movie "Maria" will stay for a few days in Greece, for filming.
The local media PatrisNews published photos and videos of the actress' arrival at the theatre.
See the video:
As soon as the filming is finished, the Hollywood star and the film's crew will be transferred to Katakolo.
After all, there is the yacht of Aristotle Onassis, Christina O, where many film scenes are shot. Aristotle Onassis will be played by the Turkish actor Haluk Bilginer.
The actress made known her desire to be accommodated on the luxury yacht. However, it has yet to be discovered where he will end up staying. According to foreign publications, accommodation on the yacht costs 100,000 euros per day, an amount that the production company will bear.
Filming will last a total of nine months. They have already started in Paris while continuing in Pyrgos Ilias and the Municipal Theater of Amaliada. Production will also be located in Budapest and Milan.
The film is directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Steven Knight, who recently worked together on the film Spencer.
Blue chip outfit FilmNation has newly boarded world sales and is launching ahead of the market, which gets underway in early June. The film is based on true accounts and will tell the tumultuous story of the world’s greatest female opera singer, relived and re-imagined during her final days in 1970s Paris. Additional casting is underway.
Speaking about the biopic, the film’s director stated that “having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream.”
“To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity,” Larraín remarked. “A true gift.”
Larraín’s credits also include No, The Club and Neruda. Most recently, he directed the Stephen King series Lisey’s Story.
Angelina Jolie thrilled to bring Maria Callas’ legacy on screen
Jolie stated, “I take…the responsibility to Maria’s life and legacy [very seriously]. I will give all I can to meet the challenge.”
Angelina Jolie was last seen in Marvel’s Eternals and Taylor Sheridan’s thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead. She is the director of the upcoming war drama Without Blood, starring Salma Hayek.
Callas, once hailed by Leonard Bernstein as “the Bible of opera,” is also linked to another Larraín film titled Jackie. The film focuses on her legendary love affair with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who eventually married Jackie Kennedy.
Maria Callas, the Greek icon with the immortal voice
The American-born, Greek-raised diva was a world-renowned opera singer. She married the wealthy industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini from 1949 to 1959. However, Callas’ most notable relationship was with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
The opera singer was born Sophia Cecilia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulou on December 2, 1923, in New York, but her family name was later shortened to Callas. She began performing at the young age of eight.
Maria Callas lived in New York for the first thirteen years, so she was proficient in English but spoke Greek at home with her parents. Later, she resided mainly in Europe but often returned to the U.S. from 1959 to 1974 to perform.
Callas reminded opera that it is also a type of theatre and that the “long lines of paunchy and plump singers that come along to push out a tune on centre stage are no longer acceptable,” a French correspondent wrote after she died in 1977.
Callas died at her Paris home on September 16, 1977, at fifty-three, after a heart attack.
READ MORE: Jackie: Her Transformation from First Lady to Jackie O.
