Francis Coppola: Last News

Jack Dunn Indie musical “Heart Strings” will have its Los Angeles premiere June 30 at American Cinematheque‘s Loz Feliz Theater. Director Ate de Jong (“Drop Dead Fred”) co-wrote the film with Steven Gaydos, Variety executive VP, Global Content, who is also co-producing. “It’s a great honor to screen at the American Cinematheque.

The Megalopolis parties and debates last week generously fed Cannes’ appetite for media buzz. Fest-goers were reminded that Francis Coppola’s journey had been a thrill ride for those who witnessed it, invested in it or were impacted by its turmoil.

To outsiders, Eleanor Coppola, who died Friday at age 87, presented as soft spoken and unassuming, yet as someone who always understood exactly what was going on. When I first met her she was playing the role of the perfect ’60s “hippie chick” who hung with young filmmakers, tolerated their ego trips but also had a keen sense of talent.

French industry and press are gathered this morning at the UGC Normandie theatre in Paris where Thierry Frémaux is about to lay out the official selection for this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Scroll down for an updated list of titles. 

EXCLUSIVE: After a feverish courtship of Francis Coppola between the organizers of the Cannes, Venice and Toronto film festivals, Megalopolis has been locked into a gala premiere slot on the Palais on Friday evening May 17, I’m told. The film will premiere in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

While Francis Coppola plans to set cinema alight in 2024 with his final epic Megalopolis, the Oscar-winner will begin the year with a revisit of one his most misunderstood efforts, One From The Heart. That’s the 1981 picture that Coppola threw himself into so hard, creatively and financially, that his American Zoetrope had to declare bankruptcy when it failed to draw audiences. It took Coppola years to build back his fortune with film hits and a win empire, to the current situation where he was able to self finance the $100 million+ Megalopolis.

Priscilla Presley’s iconic updo is hitting the screens in a fresh trailer for Sofia Coppola’s upcoming flick “Priscilla”.

With guild agreements being signed and production ramping up, Hollywood hopefully awaits a moment of youthful innovation.

Will the Hollywood studio become extinct?

Movie stars no longer “own” Hollywood, we are told, but two hallowed brand names owned much of the media space this week.

Assassination,” will be directed by David Mamet, and takes on a novel angle to the well explored story of John F. Kennedy’s murder. John Travolta celebrates 69th birthday in Vegas—joined by daughter EllaJohn F.

There have been so many variations and film versions of Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula, from 1926’s Nosferatu to Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula to Francis Coppola’s well-regarded take with Gary Oldman to even comedic satires like Love at First Bite with George Hamilton taking on the role. Now in Universal’s latest effort to rescue its horror classics and make them new again, we have the perfectly cast Nicolas Cage as the Prince of Darkness. Even he has done an offshoot before, in 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss. However this time around the film is not centered on Dracula himself, but rather his beleaguered servant, henchman, whatever you choose to call him, Renfield, and it is another Nicholas, as in Hoult, who has the title role this time in Renfield. Cage’s part, though meaty, is actually supporting as the emphasis turns to the long-suffering assistant who was tasked with bringing his boss’ prey directly to him, consuming bugs of all sorts in order to get superhuman powers to conquer them, and basically taking the fall for anything this narcissistic vampire does not find to his liking.

One was fiercely focused, the other accident-prone. They both made it.

The annual Oscar melee always reminds us of this mandate: Never believe the “buzz.” Every important movie arrives with an aura – and it’s usually wrong or misleading.

Tom Luddy, co-founder of the Telluride Film Festival and producer of numerous films for Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios, died February 13 at a nursing home in Albany, CA, where he had been under care for dementia. He was 79.

When James Cameron delivered Avatar in 2009, none of us quite grasped that this was not a movie but a constellation of movies – one that will represent a multibillion-dollar investment in the coming years. One iteration is even booked for 2028.

Where do great movies come from? When Netflix started creating its own shows a decade ago, Ted Sarandos and his colleagues put that question to select creatives around town. It was a smart exercise – but most respondents insisted there was no answer.

It is a story steeped in action and intrigue, but is it true?

EXCLUSIVE: When I meet Francis Coppola at his home high atop the mountains above his spacious Inglenook vineyard, you can feel ambition animating his every step. No, not for the 50th anniversary of his masterpiece The Godfather or its restoration that brings him to Hollywood this weekend for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a lifetime achievement award from the Publicists Guild and a tribute onstage Sunday at the Oscars. Or even him completing the sale for part of his vineyard holdings that solidifies the credit line that will enable him to finance as much as he needs to of Megalopolis, on track to begin this fall as the capper of a maverick career.