Angelina Jolie to direct Brad Pitt in on-screen reunion By The Sea

Shooting on the experimental romance is set to begin in Malta next month

Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive at the 84th Annual Academy Awards held at the Hollywood & Highland Center on February 26, 2012 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images)

Angelina Jolie is set to direct her long-term partner Brad Pitt in her own self-penned movie, By The Sea.

The actress and human rights activist, 39, has written the “intimate, character-driven drama” that she will also star in.

The experimental romance will be the first film the high-profile couple have acted in together since striking up a romance on the set of 2005’s Mr and Mrs Smith.

Shooting for By The Sea is scheduled to begin in Gozo, Malta next month for a duration of eight weeks, reports suggest.

Jolie made her feature-length directorial debut with 2011’s critically-acclaimed In The Land of Blood and Honey, which she has followed up with Louis Zamperini biopic Unbroken, due out on Christmas Day.

The Maleficent star recently suggested that acting is “going to take more of a backseat”.

“I’ve had a wonderful career and I’m very happy to have had all the opportunities I’ve had to tell stories and work for as long as I have,” she said.

“I’d like to focus more on writing and directing and above all I would like to do more for the UN and my work with the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative.”

Pitt, meanwhile, has been turning his hand to producing, and was part of the Oscar-winning team behind Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave.