REEL DEAL: "300" Star Jack O'Connell Plays Real-Life War Hero In "UNBROKEN"

He received wide acclaim as the tenacious young Greek soldier in the global box-office hit “300: Rise of an Empire.” Now, Jack O'Connell gets his biggest breakthrough role as the Olympian and World War II hero Louis Zamperini in the Angelina Jolie-directed epic drama, “Unbroken.”

The critically acclaimed film follows the incredible life of Louis “Louie” Zamperini who survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash during World War II—only to be caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a series of prisoner-of-war camps. 

REEL DEAL: Angelina Jolie's Passion For Directing Remains "UNBROKEN"

Angelina Jolie’s first feature-film directorial effort, 2011’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey” was an auspicious debut and received strong reviews and a Golden Globe Award Best nomination for Best Foreign Language film. It wasn’t surprising that the urge to continue a career as a filmmaker persisted in Jolie, even as the subject matter of another directorial effort eluded her. “I would be lying in bed thinking I want to do something meaningful. But what was it? I needed some help, some guidance,” she gives.

The living, breathing embodiment of the guidance Jolie sought, and of the themes and values that pique her interest—courage and endurance, the resilience of the human spirit, faith, forgiveness and redemption—turned out to be quite nearby. She found it wholly in the person of one of her neighbors, a living legend whose home, unbeknownst to her, was nearby her family’s house in the Hollywood Hills.