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Ford Coppola Returns to Direction

by Administrator on September 23rd, 2005

Great news for all of Patton, Apocalypse Now and the Godfather Trilogy fans out there. The big daddy himself, Francis Ford Coppola, has decided that eight years is quite long enough to go without directing a feature film.

Coppola has announced that he will be taking the helm of a low budget, self-adapted and financed version of a Romanian tale by Mircea Eliade. Called “a return to personal filmaking” for Coppola, Youth Without Youth tracks the life of a professor who is forced to become a fugitive in the years before World War II and is pursued across Europe and Asia.

After spending time in the Eastern European country in February, Coppola returned to Romania in early summer to work on the adaptation of the novella, as well as scout for suitable filming locations in Bucharest

Francis Ford Coppola: Mini Biography

As a young boy he edited home movies. Polio left him almost paralysed for a year at nine, and he developed an interest in comic books, puppetry, and television.

Coppola majored in theatre, and gained an MFA in film from UCLA. While there, he worked as assistant to Roger Corman on a variety of modestly-budgeted but lucrative films. Coppola then wrote an English version of a Russian science-fiction movie, which was released in 1963 as ‘Battle Beyond the Sun’. Impressed by the twenty four year old, Corman employed Coppola on several productions.

Coppola directed ‘Dementia 13 in just three’ from his own screenplay, and the film went on to become a minor cult film among horror buffs. In 1966 Coppola directed his second successful film, ‘You’re a Big Boy Now’, followed by another original work, ‘The Rain People’, grand prize winner at the 1970 San Sebastian International Film Festival.

In 1969 Coppola and George Lucas established production company American Zoetrope. At Zoetrope, Coppola produced ‘THX-1138′ and ‘American Graffiti’, which received five Academy Award nominations.

1971 saw Coppola’s film ‘The Godfather’ became one of the highest-grossing movies in history, and brought him an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay. The film received an Academy Award for Best Picture, and a Best Director nomination. In 1974, ‘The Godfather Part II’ was released. This rivalled its predecessor as a high-grosser at the box office, and won six Academy Awards. Coppola won Oscars as the Best Producer, Director and Writer. No sequel before or since has ever been so honoured.

Coppola then began his most ambitious film, ‘Apocalypse Now’, which won a Golden Palm Award from the Cannes Film Festival as well as two Academy Awards, following nominations for producer, director and writing Oscars in 1979. Since the 1980’s Coppola has continued to enjoy a successful career, directing many pictures including ‘Rumble Fish’, ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’, ‘The Rainmaker’ and ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’.

(bio info from The Biography Channel online)

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