Brad Pitt Became ‘Obsessed’ with Hunting Buried Treasure on His French Estate: It Was ‘Pretty Foolish’
Brad Pitt, treasure hunter?
The Oscar winner admitted to being “obsessed” with finding rumored gold on his wine-producing property in Provence, France. Pitt purchased the thousand-acre estate, Château Miraval, in 2008 with Angelina Jolie; the former couple were married on the premises in 2014, and produce rosé from the winery. Jolie recently sold her stake in the business, prompting a legal battle as part of their divorce proceedings.
Pitt, however, was approached by a man “a few years ago,” as he told GQ, claiming that the château had millions of dollars in buried gold on the grounds, dating back to the medieval era. The treasure was supposedly taken from the Levant during the Crusades. Pitt was hooked.
“I got obsessed,” the “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star said. “Like for a year, this was all I could think about, just the excitement of it all.”
The “Bullet Train” actor even bought radar equipment to search for the lost treasure across his property.
“Maybe it has something to do with where I grew up, because in the Ozark Mountains there were always stories of hidden caches of gold,” he added.
However, his mission proved futile: No treasure was uncovered, and the man who informed Pitt of the medieval ties was “ultimately seeking money for some kind of radar company, an investment opportunity,” per GQ.
Pitt noted the experience was “pretty foolish in the end,” saying, “It was just the hunt that was exciting.”
And that hunt has fueled the “last leg” of his career. “What is this section gonna be? And how do I wanna design that?” Pitt mused.
Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment has a slew of projects in the works, including producing Andrew Dominik’s upcoming Marilyn Monroe portrait “Blonde” starring Ana de Armas and based on Joyce Carol Oates’ book of the same name. Plan B has also adapted or optioned novels like Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad,” which Barry Jenkins brought to Amazon, plus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah,” and Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” Pitt called the upcoming Sarah Polley-helmed adaptation of Miriam Toews’s novel “Women Talking” as “profound a film as anything made this decade.”
Seems like Pitt doesn’t need to mine for gold when he’s already producing it.
