Actress and director Angelina Jolie was shocked to learn the subject of her new movie Unbroken, filmed in Australia, lived next door to her in California.
Jolie discovered that Olympian-turned-World War II hero Louis Zamperini was her neighbour when she first requested a meeting with the 97-year-old after her latest directorial venture was given the go ahead.
She's told US breakfast show Today, "(I said), 'Where is he? Is he around?' I think someone said, 'He knows where you live'.
"I can show you my roof from the window (in his house) and I can imagine that for the past 10-something years he's been sitting there having a coffee in the morning and wondering, 'Who's going to make this movie (about my life)?' and I've been sitting in my room thinking, 'What am I supposed to be doing with my life? I want to do something important, I want to connect, I need guidance, where is it?' And it was right outside my window."
Jolie resided in Sydney's eastern suburbs with her six children while filming Unbroken in Australia.
Unbroken tells the story of US Olympian Zamperini, who became a Japanese prisoner-of-war after his plane crashed in the Pacific. It is adaptated from Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 book of the same name.
Audiences were given their first glimpse of the movie when a sneak peak was aired in the US during the Winter Olumpics TV coverage.
* Unbroken is out in Australian cinemas on Boxing Day 2014.
