Producer offers exes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie jaw-dropping amount to appear on-screen together again
A Hollywood producer has offered exes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie a jaw-dropping amount to put their differences aside and star in a movie together.
They have suffered the most high profile and bitter Hollywood divorce of the last 50 years — which is, incredibly, still going on.
But Brad Pitt, 60, and Angelina Jolie, 49, are now being offered a “blank cheque” if they agree to put their differences aside and star in a movie together about the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, France.
Producer Danny Rossner said he will offer the ex-couple around $US60 million to star in the movie, which is adapted from The Hotel Martinez, a nonfiction love story set at the hotel and casino during World War 2.
“Right now, I think, Brad Pitt’s in the $US20 to $US25 million range [per movie] and Angelina Jolie is in the $US15 million range,” Rossner told the New York Post. “In the 50-per cent range above their going rate is what we’re prepared to offer.”
That would mean as much as $US37.5 million for Pitt and nearly $US22 million for Jolie, who met on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2004 and married in 2014.
Pitt would play Emmanuel Martinez, who owned the eponymous hotel during World War II and Jolie would portray Emma Digard, Martinez’s alluring mistress and muse.
“There is a love scene,” added Rossner. “It’s a torrid one, too. It’s not salacious but there are very heavy love scenes because Martinez felt repressed and held it all in him. When he was finally able to execute, it got pretty wild.
“He lived the high life to the fullest in every sense of the word. He had a wife and he had a mistress.”
When it is pointed out Pitt and Jolie – who have been locked in divorce proceedings since 2016, which have never been fully resolved, although a judge has legally declared them single – would not likely be amenable to even appearing in the same room, let alone filming steamy scenes, Rossner added: “Then it would disappear. That is the beauty of having the right to adjust the screenplay. But they’re certainly important for character development.”
Pitt, worth an estimated $US400 million, was already married to Jennifer Aniston when he met Angelina, worth $US160m, on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which went on to become one of the top ten highest grossing movies of 2005.
As a couple they became the most famous A-listers on the planet and are parents to six children through birth and adoption: Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.
In the divorce the children largely sided with their mother and continued to live with her, and some of the older children have dropped Pitt from their surname.
Jolie accused Pitt of drunken and abusive behaviour during a private flight from France to the US. His conduct was investigated by the FBI, but they declined to press any charges. After the split Pitt became sober. While Jolie has not had a serious relationship since the split, the actor is now dating Ines De Ramon.
“If we can have a cease fire between Israel and Lebanon, [Pitt and Jolie] can put their differences aside and come together to build a bridge and make this movie,” said Rossner, somewhat optimistically.
When asked why he was pursuing the one-time power couple so fervently, he replied: “Guaranteed success if they come on.”
Agreeing that Brangelina will generate more money than any other pair, he added, “There’s not even a second place. It’s a slam dunk with them.”
This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission