"Maleficent" star Angelina Jolie is in talks to star in Tristar's new Afghanistan war drama "Shoot Like a Girl." She is looking past the media furore over her personal life and towards her creative future.
According to The Independent, Jolie will star as Afghanistan war hero Maj. Mary Jennings Hegar in "Shoot Like a Girl." Her character saved hundreds of lives flying Search and Rescue missions. She served multiple tours in Afghanistan as a helicopter pilot.
"Shoot Like a Girl" is based on the upcoming memoir "Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman's Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front." It tells the true story of Hegar, Variety reported.
Hegar saved hundreds of men and women on and off the battlefield in the Middle East. She flew Combat Search and Rescue, as well as Medevac in Afghanistan. She worked Civil Search and Rescue missions in California and out of the sea.
On Hegar's third tour to Afghanistan in 2009, she was shot down during a Medevac mission. Her actions saved the lives of her crew and patients, earning her the Purple Heart.
Hegar filed a suit against the Secretary of Defense in 2012 to protest at the military's Combat Exclusion Policy. She helped eliminate the policy to kept female officers from serving in combat roles. That policy was repealed in 2013 after being deemed unconstitutional.
Jolie is repped by UTA and Media Talent Group. She has since toplined Disney's "Maleficent" back in 2014. Its sequel is reportedly now in the works.
Jolie co-starred with her ex-husband, Brad Pitt, in the 2015 drama "By the Sea," which tanked at the box office. She also largely focused on her humanitarian efforts.
"Shoot Like a Girl" would mark Jolie's first action project as an actor since her 2010 films "The Tourist" with Johnny Depp and "Salt" alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Liev Schreiber, marking so much of her cinematic career.
Watch the video of Angelina Jolie interested in war movie "Shoot Like a Girl":