Will Angelina Jolie sniff an Oscar nom for directing 'Unbroken'?

Posted Thursday, July 10, 2014 at 3:36 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, July 10, 2014 at 4:00 PM Central

by John Couture

Last year, hubby Brad Pitt took home an Oscar when the film he produced 12 Years a Slave won top honors for Best Picture, but this year might belong to Angelina Jolie. It's no secret that Unbroken is positioned as Oscar bait with its Christmas day release date, but with today's trailer the gauntlet has been thrown down.

The focus here is on the heroic efforts of Louis Zamperini, whose life story is at the center of this incredible journey. As I mentioned back when Universal optioned the book, Zamperini's story would make for one epic film, but there was some trepidation when it was announced that Jolie would be making her directing debut on the project.

There's always a bit of fear associated with the unknown, but I think this trailer goes a long way to putting those fears to rest. In fact, not only does Jolie look to get some major Oscar buzz from this, but the Coen brothers might get some unexpected Best Adapted Screenplay votes.

As a sad post script to this story, I wanted to mention this, but in my haste to post it, I forgot. Louis died last week at the age of 97 and the tribute below from Tom Brokaw will surely touch your emotions.