The Hollywood superstar who has made a name offscreen for her humanitarian work, yesterday expressed her interest in buying the film rights to Canadian Mrs Hawach's story.

Mrs Hawach was reunited with her children, Hannah and Cedar, after hiring two former Australian and New Zealand special forces soldiers to steal them back from her ex-husband, Joseph last year.

Jolie's representative called Mrs Hawach's Sydney agent Sean Anderson yesterday to pitch the actor for the part.

The agent said a spokesman for Jolie made the bid in a phone call and was expecting further details of Jolie's interest in an email from her production company overnight.

"She has shown interest in playing Melissa," Mr Anderson said, adding that five major studios had already bid on the harrowing tale, including 20th Century Fox.

"For someone with Angelina's profile to be keen, it's obviously very flattering," he said.