‘Sunny’: Angelina Jolie Plays A Protective Gangster Mother In Violent Crime Thriller From Director Eva Sørhaug

Production has started on “Sunny,” a crime world thriller directed by Norwegian filmmaker Eva Sørhaug (“90 Minutes”), with Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie set to not only play the gangster matriarch of the film, but will also produce it as well, as the pic is at Gramercy Park Media, A Higher Standard, and Nickel City Pictures.

A brief plot description of “Sunny” as mentioned in the original report from Deadline: “Follows a female gangster (Jolie) who fights to protect her sons, and herself, from an abusive drug kingpin. But when a devastating event occurs, she only has a matter of hours to plot their permanent escape.”

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Some of Sørhaug’s more recent directing credits include episodes of acclaimed series “Yellowjackets,” the second season of Michael Mann‘s Japanese-set crime thriller HBO show “Tokyo Vice,” and the Showtime series remake of the underrated Swedish vampire pic “Let The Right One In.”

William Day Frank penned the script for “Sunny” from a story he put together alongside Sørhaug. As the rest of the producing team consists of Gramercy Park Media’s Nathan Klingher, Nickel City Pictures’ Mark Fasano, and A Higher Standard’s Jeffrey Greenstein, in association with Choice Films. Sørhaug is also set as the film’s executive producer, with Higher Standard handling worldwide sales and WME Independent co-repping the domestic side.

Nickel City’s Fasano told Variety in an official statement, “People are going to be shocked by what she brings with this riveting character. This violent world that Eva and Angelina have crafted is grounded in survival and family, led by a mother doing anything and everything within her power to protect her two boys.”

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Other feature projects on the horizon for Jolie include Alice Winocour‘s TIFF-premiering Fashion Week drama “Couture,” the Marc Forster-directed holiday hostage pic “Anxious People” co-starring Aime Lou Wood, and Doug Liman‘s new spy thriller “The Initiative,” after the two previously worked together on “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”