Jolie, Pitt come to aid of HBO with project

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (L) arrive for the premiere of the film ''The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford'' in New York September 18, 2007. Jolie and Pitt are making their first joint producing effort with an HBO series about aid workers.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are making their first joint producing effort with an HBO series about aid workers.

The untitled drama will explore the behind-the scenes politics of an international aid organization, and chronicle the lives of humanitarian workers assigned to dangerous zones and the needy people they assist.

Jolie and Pitt will serve as executive producers, along with Scott Burns, who will write the pilot. Burns co-wrote "The Bourne Ultimatum" and was a producer of "An Inconvenient Truth."

The series has been a passion project for Jolie since she did the 2003 feature "Beyond Borders," a drama about disaster-relief workers in war-torn countries.

It marks Jolie's return to HBO 10 years after her breakthrough starring role in the cable network's biopic "Gia," which earned her a Golden Globe.

Pitt already is in business with HBO. Along with Edward Norton, he is executive producing the HBO/National Geographic miniseries "Undaunted Courage," now in development. The 10-hour miniseries, based on the book by Stephen F. Ambrose, retraces the legendary journey across the Western U.S. by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in the early 1800s.

Jolie most recently starred in the feature "A Mighty Heart," about the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Pitt was a producer on "Heart."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter