Angelina Jolie is a huge star in dire need of a great acting career – will her new movie finally change that?

Where in the world is Angelina Jolie? Twenty-five years after winning an Oscar for her wildly arresting performance as a young psychiatric patient in the drama Girl, Interrupted, the actor has pulled her own version of a vanishing act. It’s not as if she’s been hiding out in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. She does remain an enormous global celebrity, her every action scrutinised, her every utterance pored over.

This week she’s been in the news again because of her bitter legal battle with her ex-husband Brad Pitt. But it has been a long time since fans and critics have had a major Jolie acting performance to watch. Though it looks as if that may be about to change.

Jolie will soon be back on the big screen playing opera diva Maria Callas in a new biopic by the Chilean director Pablo Larraín. Maria, scripted by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight and set at the end of its subject’s life, has been receiving strong advance buzz. Its producers believe that Jolie is exceptional.