Angelina Jolie has found her star for Unbroken, her next directorial effort. She has picked Skins actor Jack O’Connell to play Louis Zamperini in the real life World War II drama.
Both The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter have confirmed that the actor has snagged the lead role. He was among the top three choices for the part, coming out on top out of a group of other young actors.
Zamperini, who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, survived a plane crash in the Pacific in 1943. He lasted 47 days in a raft without food or water before he was picked up by the Japanese and forced to work in a labor camp. Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand turned his story into a book in 2010 and it became a bestseller.
Universal is producing Unbroken. Joel and Ethan Coen recently worked on a draft of the script and William Nicholson and Richard LaGravenese worked on previous drafts. Matthew Baer, Erwin Stoff and Jolie are producing.
O’Connell starred in the British series Skins and appears in 300: Rise of an Empire. That film hits theaters in March 2014.
Over the weekend, Jolie was spotted in Hawaii to scout locations for the film.
image: Wikimedia Commons
