Angelina Jolie is currently promoting two films – her “comeback role” in Pablo Larrain’s Maria, and her latest directorial effort, Without Blood. Both films have premiered at various film festivals, although only one of them has gotten good reviews. It’s clear that Maria will be Angelina’s Oscar-bait film and Netflix is likely building a campaign for Jolie and putting real money into it. But what about Without Blood? Well, the reviews are middling-to-bad, with most critics pointing to the terrible adapted script more than Jolie’s direction (Jolie co-wrote the adaptation though). So will Without Blood become Jolie’s “Norbit”? LMAO. I don’t think it’s that bad, but the next few months will be interesting.

Angelina Jolie has high award hopes for her new biopic, Maria, but she’s endured savage reviews for her other most recent directorial endeavor, Without Blood, which has left her with a serious embarrassment, a source close to the actress’ team exclusively tells In Touch.

“Angelina is a little annoyed that she’s having to juggle the solid success of Maria, which has firmly put her in the Oscar race and back into business with Netflix, and her passion project Without Blood,” the source says.

The pal adds that Without Blood was “a movie Angelina thought could change the world when she first initiated it, but which now is stained by apathetic reviews and a weak audience response at its film festival debut.”

Her latest attempt at adapting Alessandro Baricco’s novel about the lingering horror of surviving violence missed its mark with critics. Without an identifiable conflict to study through the film, The Guardian’s Radheyan Simonpillai says Angie’s attempt “leaves its mismatched stars, Salma Hayek Pinault and Demián Bichir, flailing with words, anecdotes and frustratingly tedious and abstract conversations that feel like they’re searching for meaning.” Maria, on the other hand, has been billed as Angelina’s big comeback movie.

“As both movies march toward being seen by the broader public,” the insider continues, “Angelina is going to have to thread the needle here a bit, especially because she has always seen directing as a way to stay in the business once she ages out these leading lady roles. She wants to direct more movies, in no uncertain terms, and she has installed a whole team around her for those projects that will follow her into the gates of hell to get these films made. But the trick is, they have to make money and nobody thinks Without Blood can make a profit.”

As a second source previously dished to In Touch, “Angelina and Salma have a deep, ongoing collaboration that hasn’t let up since they shot Eternals together almost six years ago.”

The first source continues, “The upside here is that the movie really deepened her already-strong friendship with Salma Hayek, and Salma has billions of dollars and the ability to fully finance films that she’s passionate about. That didn’t happen on Without Blood but it’s certainly on the table the next time Angelina steps behind the camera.”

[From In Touch Weekly]

Jolie actually did Without Blood as part of a three-year deal she inked with Fremantle in 2022, and Fremantle is supposed to be the worldwide distributor of the film. As of this writing, Without Blood does not have a release date, and it doesn’t look like anyone’s trying to get this film out this year. It could possibly be dumped on a streamer or VOD or given a brief theatrical run at some point next year. The point is that I doubt Jolie is that worried that Without Blood will affect her Oscar campaign for Maria, but I bet she’s not happy about the poor reviews and the fact that no one really wants to buy the film or really distribute it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.