Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will go head-to-head in a full-blown custody trial, which begins early next month ... TMZ has learned.
Angelina and Brad have filed legal docs asking an L.A. Superior Court Judge to give them until next June to hash out their bitter divorce ... with the help of a private judge.
The custody trial is now set to begin December 4, and the 2 parents could not be further apart. Angelina wants sole physical custody of their 6 kids and Brad wants 50/50 joint custody.
We're told the custody trial should take somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks, and then the judge has to sort it all out.
In addition to custody, the private judge needs to handle the property settlement. There is not a prenup ... which is huge, given the bad blood between the two.
We know Brad has bitterly complained he feels Angelina is trying to deny him the right to parent their kids.