Viewers who watched NBC’s Olympic coverage on Sunday caught a glimpse of Angelina Jolie’s upcoming movie,聽Unbroken.
The biopic tells the story of . At age 19, Zamperini placed eighth in the 5,000-meter run at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. After World War II broke out, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force. His B-24 bomber was shot down on a mission over the Pacific, and he survived for 47 days adrift in a life raft before being captured by the Japanese. For two years he endured cruel treatment at a prisoner of war camp until V-J Day in August 1945.
“You learn perseverance in running. Right in the middle of almost giving up, you try again and again until you overcome,” Zamperini . “And that’s important in the war, too: the determination to come out first, to come out alive.”
Lauren Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit,聽told Zamperini’s story in the 2010聽New York Times best-seller Unbroken. Joel and Ethan Coen adapted the book into a screenplay. The preview, and presumably the movie, is narrated by Tom Brokaw. This is Jolie’s second film behind the camera as director. The film is scheduled to be in theaters Christmas Day.