The cultural phenomenon known as Brangelina may be about to grow.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt  (file photo)

Promoting his new film in Venice, actor Brad Pitt said he and his wife, actress Angelina Jolie, are ready for a fifth child. Both movie stars and their four children were in Venice on September 2, promoting Pitt's new movie on Western outlaw Jesse James. The film is competing for the Golden Lion award at the city's film festival.

Pitt and Jolie have a 15-month-old biological daughter, Shiloh. Jolie has also adopted three children close in age from Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. Asked by Italian state TV whether they were ready for a fifth, Pitt replied "Yeah, we're ready."

He did not indicate whether they would adopt or have another biological child. Speaking earlier in the day at a news conference, Pitt said "It's the most fun I've ever had and also the biggest pain...I've ever experienced. I love it and can't recommend it any more highly - although sleep is nonexistent."

Having four small children "makes me much more efficient because when I work, I really have to focus. I know I've less time to get things done. Actually, I'm quite pleased by it," he said.

"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" starring Pitt, Casey Affleck, and Sam Shepherd, was directed by Andrew Dominik. Pitt described it as "more a gangster film than a Western."

Pitt portrays James in the last year of his life as he lapses into paranoia over potential betrayal by accomplices and intimates.