EXCLUSIVE: Angelina Jolie 'Drawing on Agony of Brad Pitt Divorce and Endless Winery Court Battle' for New Female Gangster Role

Angelina Jolie is drawing on the turmoil of her long-running divorce from Brad Pitt and the bitter court battle over their French winery as she takes on a brutal new role as a mother-turned-gangster in the upcoming thriller Sunny, according to industry insiders who tell RadarOnline.com the actress is channeling "years of accumulated agony" into her performance.

Sunny places mom-of-six Jolie, 50, in the role of a woman fighting to protect her two sons from an abusive drug lord, only to be given hours to plan a final escape after a devastating incident.

The film, directed by Eva Sørhaug, is based on a script by William Day Frank, and marks Jolie's first major on-screen transformation since her acclaimed portrayal of Maria Callas in Maria, and comes as her protracted legal fight with Pitt, 61, over their formerly jointly-owned Château Miraval vineyard in France continues into its fourth year.

A production source said the film's themes had an unmistakable echo of Jolie's private battles.

They added: "Angelina has carried a lot of pain through the divorce and the winery fight, and you can feel that in her latest work. She is channeling everything in her past, from the divorce from Brad and their Château battle, and she has not been holding back in the way it will come out in her performance."

Another source close to the development of Sunny said Jolie had entered the role with "the weariness and buried fury of someone who has spent years in courtrooms fighting for her children and her dignity."

They added: "The emotional intensity she brings is not manufactured."

Jolie's previous project, Maria, earned widespread acclaim and award nominations earlier this year. She later admitted she had lied to its director, Pablo Larraín, about her singing abilities to secure the role of the opera icon.

Jolie said: "I had never sung. I had somebody once tell me I couldn't sing or be a little dismissive when I was singing once, and it really shut me down. I never told anybody, but it was part of my life that I just blocked.

"And then when Pablo asked me to do this and asked me if I could sing, I lied... obviously, nobody can sing like Maria. No one. But I'll do my best."

Jolie has also recalled discovering the limits of that bluff coming to light during her first vocal lesson for the film.

She said: "I made the mistake in the beginning of thinking, when he asked me to sing a little, 'I like movie singing.' "I could sing a bit, I guess. I very quickly realized that you can't fake singing opera.

"Not that I wanted to fake sing anything, but I didn't really think I was going to be asked to actually sing."

She added the experience overwhelmed her: "He said, 'Take a deep breath and then start to make sounds' – I started crying."