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Actress Angelina Jolie will play the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a new film directed by English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.

"A Mighty Heart" will begin shooting within the next five weeks, the paper said.

The film is adapted from Mariane Pearl's own memoir. She was pregnant when her husband was kidnapped by Muslim militants in Pakistan in 2002 and endured a desperate few months before his body was found.

"I am delighted that Angelina Jolie will be playing my role in the adaptation of my book," Daily Variety quoted Pearl as saying.

"I deeply admire her work and what she is committed to. I am also happy that Michael Winterbottom, a versatile and talented director who genuinely loves truth, will be working on this project as well."

Jolie's boyfriend, actor Brad Pitt, will serve as a producer of the project, which is set up at Paramount Vantage, the art-house arm of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures.

A Mighty Heart will be the first major film project for Jolie, 31, following the birth of daughter Shiloh in May.

Editor: Donald