Angelina Jolie to star in dark thriller Sunny

Angelina Jolie is to star in Sunny.

The Maria actress has begun production on the dark thriller, which follows a female gangster who fights to protect her sons from an abusive drug lord, but is left with just hours to plan a permanent escape following a traumatic event.

Eva Sørhaug is directing the film for Gramercy Park Media, A Higher Standard, and Nickel City Pictures, from a script written by William Day Frank based on a storythey conceived together.

Mark Fasano of Nickel City Pictures hailed Angelina a "tour-de-force".

The producer added to Deadline: “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.”

Gramercy Park’s Nathan Klingher agreed: “Angelina has made this role uniquely her own. Strong, character-driven thrillers like this are rare, and the attention to detail that she and Eva have brought to the film is impressive to watch.”

Angelina won praise and a string of award nominations earlier this year for her role as opera legend Maria Callas in Maria, but she previously admitted she

"lied" about her singing skills to director Pablo Larrain in order to land the role.

She told Variety: "I had never sung. I had somebody once tell me I couldn’t sing or be a little dismissive when I was singing once, and it really shut me down.

"I never told anybody, but it was part of my life that I just blocked. And then when Pablo asked me to do this and asked me if I could sing, I lied.

"‘Can you ride a horse?’ ‘Yes.’ Obviously, nobody can sing like Maria. No one. But I’ll do my best."

Angelina previously admitted she was convinced she could bluff her way through 'Maria''s singing scenes until she had her first lesson with a music teacher.

According to Best magazine, she said: “I made the mistake in the beginning of thinking, when he asked me to sing a little, ‘I like movie singing.’

"I could sing a bit I guess. I very quickly realised that you can’t fake sing opera. Not that I wanted to fake sing anything, but I didn’t really think I was going to be asked to actually sing.

“Somehow, it didn’t cross my mind. I don’t know why. I didn’t completely understand until I was standing in this room and Pablo had met so many different teachers and he found one to begin.”

Angelina went on to reveal she “started crying” as soon as she had to sing during that first lesson.

She added: “The first time, he [the teacher] said, ‘OK. Plant your feet’… He took me seriously as a singer, which was very moving to be already.

“He said, ‘Take a deep breath and then start to make sounds’ – I started crying. Because I think we all hold so much in that we don’t really let out. We don’t let our full voice out."