As if plucked from someone’s wildest imagination – or the year 2005 – there are new ‘rumours’ suggesting Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have both received offers to reunite onscreen.

Apparently, producer Danny Rossner wants to hire the famous exes to play ‘lovers’ in his new film based on the hotelier Emmanuel Martinez. Rossner reportedly thinks they can ‘put their differences aside’ for the sake of his 20-year passion project.

Well, there’s putting your differences aside for a family lunch, and then there’s putting aside your eight-year divorce battle for a movie role… Not quite the same, is it?

A source claims there is ‘no way’ Pitt would ‘lower himself’ to accept the offer. ‘All the money in the world wouldn’t get Brad to appear in a movie with Angelina ever again,’ the insider told the Daily Mail. ‘It would definitely spark interest, but it’s not anything he would ever consider for a moment.

‘They are currently bitter enemies so there is no way Brad would lower himself to be paid any amount of money to talk to Angie onscreen.’

Even if it was a legitimate offer, it’s safe to assume neither party would want to be involved. For starters, Pitt has an estimated net worth of $400 million and Jolie is reportedly worth $120 million, so neither of them particularly need the cash.

More importantly, they are currently preparing to face each other in court. In November, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in favour of their dispute about the rightful ownership of their French winery, Chateau Miraval, which is holding up their divorce, heading to trial.

When the couple bought Chateau Miraval in 2008 as a place to raise their children, make their own rosé and drink the fruits of their labour, Pitt owned 60% and Jolie owned 40%. After their wedding in 2014, Pitt gave Jolie 10% as a gift so that they had equal shares. After their separation, Jolie sold her shares to Russian vodka magnate Yuri Shefler. It is the validity of this sale that is at the crux of the trial.

The judge upheld that there was ‘an implied contract regarding shares in the company’ and Pitt’s outstanding claims were valid on two counts of interference. However, it is not plain sailing by any means.

In an apparent win for Jolie, the judge also ruled that Pitt must disclose documents that Jolie’s lawyer claims will prove ‘communications concerning abuse, lies to authorities, and years of cover up’ on Pitt’s part.

While Pitt’s team called the request ‘wide ranging and intrusive’ as well as a ‘sensationalist fishing expedition’, Jolie’s team have called the documents ‘crucial evidence’ that Pitt has ‘fought for years to hide’.

All of which is to say that the former power couple is not on the best of terms. Jolie’s lawyer, Paul Murphy, has also said that Pitt’s decision to take the Miraval case to trial comes at the detriment of his family.

‘His actions harmed Angelina and their children and are central to this case,’ Murphy’s statement reads, ‘but I want to again emphasise that Angelina never wanted any of this. She never pressed charges, she left all their properties, and she is the one who tried to sell him the business in the first place.

‘To this day, Mr. Pitt has never been held accountable for his actions and has at all times controlled Miraval and the winery, yet he still demands more. She wants this to end, the children want this to end, and Mr. Pitt should focus on healing their family, not pursuing lawsuits.’

It is a family, for that matter, that has grown estranged from Pitt over the course of the past eight years. Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016 after ‘an altercation’ took place on a family plane journey from France to LA. Pitt was cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation and denies all allegations of abuse. Nonetheless, the former couple’s six children have taken a stance in support of their mother.

Their three daughters, Zahara, Vivienne and Shiloh, have all dropped ‘Pitt’ from their surnames and their three sons, Pax, Knox and Maddox, have been by Jolie’s side on the press run of her latest film, Maria. Pax and Maddox even worked on the film in the assistant director department.

While they rarely, if ever, comment publicly on their parents’ situation, in 2020 Pax offered a rare insight into his relationship with his father on social media. Sharing a picture of Pitt accepting the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor on Father’s Day, Pax called him a ‘world class asshole’ and a ‘fucking awful human being’.

He rounded off the post by writing, ‘You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. You may tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but the truth will come to light someday.’

Far from gearing up to collaborate on another romantic blockbuster together, it’s possible that the Jolie-Pitt family has faced damage beyond repair in the past eight years. The upcoming trial, which is expected to start in the spring, is likely to involve a lot of pain on both sides. There might be wine on the line, but there is a lot more to lose.