. >> reporter: for angelina, the story began back in 2010, when she read laura hillenband's best-sellingk "unbroken" about louis zamperini's remarkable life. she saw a lesson in it for us today: >> we need to be able to believe that we are capable of more than a lot of people -- i think a lot of young people today feel that they are. >> reporter: as millions now now, louis zamperini went from juvenile delinquent to olympic athlete, survived a wartime plane crash and 47 days in a life raft. declared dead he was subjected to barbaric war crimes. and then came back, a lazarus in khaki. given all that you went through, was there ever a moment -- at sea, the japanese prisoner camp, in those early bombing raids when you were shot up -- when you just fleetingly thought, "i can't do this, i can't go on"? >> never occurred to me. i'm a very positive person. no matter what the situation is, i've learned how to be content. i've learned how to handle it. >> reporter: angelina was so moved by louis' strength she decided she just had to make the film adaptation of laura hillenband's book. and so began

. >> reporter: for angelina, the story began back in 2010 when she read laura hillenband's best-selling book "unbroken" about louis zamperini's remarkable life. she saw a lesson in it for us today. >> reporter: we need to be able to believe that we are capable of -- of more than -- than a lot of people, and i think a lot of young people today, feel that they are. >> reporter: as millions now know, louis zamperini went from juvenile delinquent to olympic athlete. survived a wartime plane crash. and 47 days in a liferaft. declared dead, he was subjected to barbaric war crimes. and then came back a lazarus in khaki. >> given all that you went through, was there ever a moment, at sea, the japanese prisoner camp, in those early bombing raids when you were shot up, when you just fleetingly thought, "i can't do this. i can't go on." >> never occurred to me. i'm a very positive person. no matter what the situation is, i've learned how to to be content. i've learned how to handle it. >> reporter: angelina was so moved by louis' strength she decided she just had to make the film adaptation of lau