PRODUCER TRIES TO CALM JOLIE PROTESTERS

In advance of Angelina Jolie’s arrival in Bosnia, where she is due to direct a thus-far-untitled drama set during the 1992-95 war, Scout Film executive Edin Sarkic is attempting to calm the anxieties of Bosnian women who were victims of Serbian brutality during the war, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Wednesday). Jolie is directing and co-writing the film but does not star in it. Little has been revealed about the project except that it concerns a Bosnian woman, raped by a Serb soldier, falling in love with the soldier. That brief synopsis is all it took for Bosnian rape victims to mobilize a protest and attempt to shut down production of the film in their country. Initially the government yanked permits to film in the country, then reversed iself after Sarkic submitted the script for review. In an interview with the Times, Sarkic said, “Angelina will come to Sarajevo and she will talk to the women. She will explain everything to them and they will understand that they have nothing to worry about.” But doing so, it would appear, entails revealing the ending of the film, which could harm it at the box office. The Times did so today (while including an unusual spoiler alert), noting that the ending has already been revealed by a local newspaper in Sarajevo.