Francis Ford Coppola

At 85 years old, Francis Ford Coppola has this physical status:

Francis Ford Coppola (Greta) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was born on April 7, 1939. He is one of the key figures of the 1960s and 1970s New Hollywood filmmaking movement. Coppola has been named winner of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or, and a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA).

Coppola co-wrote Patton (1970), earning him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay alongside Edmund H. North, after directing The Rain People in 1969. Coppola's fame as a filmmaker was cemented with the debut of The Godfather (1972), which reimagined the gangster style of filmmaking, receiving a large commercial and critical audience. Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay were three Academy Awards for the Godfather (shared with Mario Puzo). His film The Godfather Part II (1974) became the first sequel to receive the Academy Award for Best Picture. Critics also praised Coppola's film for three Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture, making him the second director (after Billy Wilder) to win these three awards for the same film.

He made the thriller The Conversation in 1974, which earned the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His next film, Apocalypse Now (1979), which was a long and strenuous production, was widely praised for vividly portraying the Vietnam War. Coppola also received the Palme d'Or Award, making Coppola one of only nine filmmakers to have received the prize twice. The Outsiders and Rumble Fish (1984), The Godfather Part III (1990), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and The Rainmaker (1995) were two other notable films Coppola has released since the 1980s include the dramas The Outsiders and Rumble Fish (both 1983), The Cotton Club (1986), The Godfather Part III (1990), and The Rainmaker (1997).

Many of Coppola's relatives and children have established themselves as actors and filmmakers: his sister Talia Shire is an actress, his niece Sofia and granddaughter Gia are actors, and his nephews Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage are actors. Coppola lives in Napa, California, and has been a vintner since the 2010s, owning both a family-owned winery and a winery of his own.

Early life and education

Francis Ford Coppola was born in Detroit, Michigan, to father Carmine Coppola (1910–1991), a flutist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and her mother Italia Coppola (1912–2004). He was born in the country of Italy's immigrants. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Bernalda, Basilicata, to the United States. Francesco Pennino, the Italian composer, emigrated from Naples, Italy, and his maternal grandfather, Francesco Pennino, emigrated. His father, who was also a flutist, was an orchestrate and assistant orchestra conductor for The Ford Evening Hour, an hour-long concert music radio series sponsored by the Ford Motor Company at the time of Coppola's birth. Coppola was born at Henry Ford Hospital, and the Coppolas were inspired by Henry Ford's connection to him to choose the middle name "Ford" for their son.

Francis is the middle of three children: his older brother was August Coppola and his younger sister, actress Talia Shire, is the middle of three children.

Coppola's father was named principal flutist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra two years after his birth, and the family moved to New York. Coppola spent the remainder of his childhood in Woodside, Queens.

Coppola was bedridden for significant portions of his childhood, during which he produced homemade puppet theater productions, after being contracted polio as a youth. After reading A Streetcar Named Desire at age 15, he took an interest in theater. He made 8 mm feature films cut from home movies with titles like The Rich Millionaire and The Lost Wallet. Despite Coppola's modesty as a pupil, his passion for electronics and engineering gave him the nickname "Science" in childhood. He began training in music and became fluent in the tuba, eventually earning a music scholarship to the New York Military Academy. Coppola attended 23 colleges before graduating from Great Neck North High School in all.

He enrolled Hofstra College in 1955 as a theater arts major. He was given a fellowship in playwriting. This boosted his enthusiasm for directing theater, though his father disapproved and wanted him to study engineering. Coppola was greatly impressed by Sergei Eisenstein's film October: Ten Days That Shook The World, especially the quality of its editing, and he wanted to pursue cinema rather than theater. He said he was encouraged to become a writer by his brother's August influence. Elia Kazan's writing and film work also inspired him. At Hofstra, James Caan, Lainie Kazan, and radio artist Joe Frank were among Coppola's classmates. In One From the Heart and Caan, Lainie Kazan, and Gardens of Stone, he later cast Lainie Kazan in One from the Heart and Caan.

Coppola was elected president of The Green Wig and the Kaleidoscopians while studying his bachelor's degree. He converted the two groups into The Spectrum Players, and under his leadership, the company produced a new show every week. Coppola contributed regularly to the campus literary magazine and founded the cinema workshop at Hofstra. He received three D. Lawrence Awards for outstanding contributions to the school's theater arts division, as well as a the Beckerman Award for his outstanding contributions to the school's theater arts division. Coppola lived under professor Dorothy Arzner, whose encouragement was later regarded as vital to Coppola's career.

Personal life

Eleanor Jessie Neil, a 1963 writer and documentary film maker, married Coppola. Hearts of Darkness, a filmmaker's Apocalypse, was her first film director's Apocalypse. Gian-Carlo Coppola, Roman Coppola, and Sofia Coppola, three children, were married together, and all three children became filmmakers. Gian-Carlo died at the age of 22 following a 1986 speedboating tragedy. Gia Coppola, a filmmaker, had one child, and he was also a filmmaker. Coppola's nephews, Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman, are Coppola's nephews.

Coppola filmed a mass televised rally for California Governor Jerry Brown, the Democratic Party presidential nominee, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison during the 1980 United States presidential election. The rally fell short of causing Brown to drop out of the competition after failing to draw attention away from the other Democratic primary candidates, Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy. Coppola has worked with several Democratic presidential candidates, including Mike Thompson and Nancy Pelosi for the US House of Representatives and Barbara Boxer and Alan Cranston for the Senate, over the years.

Source

Career

Coppola enrolled in UCLA Film School after receiving his theater arts degree from Hofstra in 1960. There, he supervised The Two Christophers, a short horror film based on Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson" and Ayamonn the Terrible, a film about a sculptor's nightmares come to life. Jim Morrison, the future frontman of The Doors, appeared on undergraduate film. In Apocalypse Now, Coppola later used Morrison's "The End" by Coppola.

Coppola made $10 a week in the early 1960s. He discovered that several coworkers from film school made money filming "nudie-cuties" or "skin flicks" that revealed nudity without hinting at any sexual activity.

Coppola's script for The Peeper, a comedy short film about a voyeur who tries to spy on a sensuous photo shoot in the studio next to his apartment, was written at 21. Coppola discovered an essible filmmaker who lent him $3,000 to shoot the film. Playboy Bunny Renfro to act as the actress and Karl Schanzer to act as the voyeur. Coppola found that the cartoonish aspects of the film had alienated potential buyers, who did not find the 12-minute short film exciting enough to be shown in adult theaters.

Coppola was offered the opportunity by Premier Pictures Company, a small production company that invested in The Wide Open Spaces, an erotic western written and directed by Jerry Schafer, which had been postponed for more than a year. Marli Renfro was starring in both Schafer's film and The Peeper, so the producers paid Coppola $500 to bring the two films together. The picture was released in 1962 as the softcore comedy Tonight for Sure after Coppola re-edited it.

Coppola was hired by a film company called Screen Rite Pictures to do a similar job: Re-cutting a German film called Mit Eva fing die Sünde an (Sin Began with Eve), directed by Fritz Umgelter. June Wilkinson, a British model, and other nude starlets were included in Coppola's latest color video. The Bellboy and the Playgirls were the re-edited film.

Roger Corman recruited Coppola as an assistant a few years ago. Corman first charged Coppola with tethering and re-editing the Soviet science fiction film Nebo zovyot, which Coppola turned into the sex-and-violence epic Battle Beyond the Sun in 1962. Corman recruited him as a sound man for The Young Racers (1963) and associate producer and one of many uncredited directors for The Terror (1963), after being inspired by Coppola's tenacity and dedication.

Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola's first feature film. Corman begged Coppola to use the film's leftover funds to create a low-budget horror film when on location in Ireland with The Young Racers in 1963. Coppola produced a brief draft in a single night, incorporating elements from Hitchcock's Psychoanalysis, and the end piqued Corman enough to allow him to proceed. Coppola directed Dementia 13 over the course of nine days on a budget of $40,000 ($20,000) from Corman and $20,000 from another filmmaker who wanted to buy the film's English rights. The film recouped its expenses and later became a cult film among horror buffs. Coppola met Eleanor Jessie Neil on the set of Dementia 13.

Coppola received the annual Samuel Goldwyn Award for best screenplay (Pilma, Pilma) written by a UCLA undergraduate in 1965. With Seven Arts, he has been given a job as a scriptwriter. Coppola also co-wrote the scripts for This Property Is Condemned (1966) and Is Paris Burning during this period. (1966)

Coppola bought the rights to the David Benedictus novel You're a Big Boy Now and combined it with a story idea of his own, earning Coppola's Master of Fine Arts Degree from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 1967. The film was also released theatrically by Warner Bros and received critical acclaim. Geraldine Page was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her efforts.

Coppola was given the opportunity to film version of Broadway's Rainbow, starring Petula Clark in her first American film and veteran Fred Astaire, following the success of You're a Big Boy Now. Jack L. Warner was dissatisfied with Coppola's shaggy-haired, bearded, "hippie" appearance, and he was left to his own devices. Coppola took the cast to the Napa Valley for the bulk of the shooting, but the scenes were in sharp contrast to those shot on a Hollywood soundstage, resulting in a disjointed look to the film. Clark, who was dealing with outdated information at a time when film musicals' success was just beginning to wane, received a Golden Globe Best Actress award. Coppola was introduced to George Lucas, who became his lifelong companion and also a production assistant in his forthcoming film The Rain People in 1969.

The Rain People was written, directed, and first produced by Coppola himself, but as the film progressed, he outgrew his budget and the studio had to fund the remainder of the film. At the 1969 San Sebastian Film Festival, the film received the Golden Shell.

Coppola wanted to definish the studio system, which he felt had stifled his dreams, in 1969, he wanted to produce mainstream photographs to fund off-beat projects and give first-time directors a chance. After receiving a gift of zoetropes from Mogens Scot-Hansen, the maker of a film studio called Lanterna Film, and the owner of a famous collection of early motion picture-making equipment, he decided on "Zoetrope." Coppola was introduced to alternate filmmaking techniques while touring Europe and was inspired by Lanterna Film's bohemian spirit, he decided to create a deviant studio that would explore and implement unconventional approaches to filmmaking. Coppola and George Lucas searched for a mansion in Marin County to house the studio on his return home. However, the first home for Zoetrope Studio in 1969, with equipment running in and no mansion found yet, became a warehouse in San Francisco on Folsom Street. The studio went on to become a pioneer of digital filmmaking, as well as some of the first uses of HDTV. Andrew Sarris' book The American Cinema in 1968 wrote, "[Coppola] is certainly the first reasonably skilled and adaptable directorial talent to emerge from a university curriculum in film-making."

Coppola was one of a group of filmmakers known as "New Hollywood" that emerged in the early 1970s, with concepts that defyred traditional filmmaking. Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Terrence Malick, Robert Altman, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, William Friedkin, Philip Kaufman, and George Lucas were among the company's members.

In 1970, Coppola and Edmund H. North co-wrote the script for Patton. He received his first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work on film. Coppola did not succeed in convincing Franklin J. Schaffner that the opening scene would work, but it was not easy for him.

Coppola later revealed in an interview,

When George C. Scott was given the title role, he remembered reading Coppola's screenplay earlier. He said explicitly that he would only accept the role if they used Coppola's script. Coppola wrote, "Scott is the one who revived my version."

Scott's rendering of Patton's famous military "Pep Talk" to members of the Third Army is set against a massive American flag. Coppola and North were required to tone down Patton's actual language to avoid an R rating; in the first monologue, the word "fornicating" was substituted with "fucking" when criticizing The Saturday Evening Post; Over the years, this opening monologue has remained a signature scene, political cartoons, and television shows.

The 1972 film The Godfather was released, which was a cinematic milestone. The close of three hours of Mario Puzo's New York Times-bestselling book The Godfather, chronicling the Corleone family's story, received largely positive feedback from critics and gained the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as the Golden Globe Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay. Coppola, on the other hand, had several issues while filming. He was not Sergio Leone, the Italian director, was initially offered the job but later decided not to direct his own gangster opus, Once Upon a Time in America. Robert Evans wanted the film to be directed by an Italian American to make it "ethnic to the core." After the poor reception of Evans' new film The Rain People, his chief assistant Peter Bart suggested Coppola, an Italian ancestry writer who would work for a modest sum and budget. Coppola started turning down the job because he discovered Puzo's novel sleazy and sensationalist, describing it as "pretty cheap stuff" at the time. Coppola's studio American Zoetrope owed over $400,000 to Warner Bros. for budget overruns in the film THX 1138, and Coppola reformed his initial decision and rejoined the company. On September 28, 1970, Coppola was officially announced as the film's director. He has agreed to receive $125,000 and six percent of the gross rent. Coppola later found a deeper meaning for the film, realizing it would not be merely a film about organized crime but also a family's chronicle and a Marxist metaphor in America. Paramount and Coppola were split on casting; Coppola wanted to film Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, but Paramount wanted either Ernest Borgnine or Danny Thomas. "Marlon Brando will never appear in this motion picture," Coppola was told by Coppola said after pleading with the executives, he could only star Brando in the film for much less money than his previous films, will do a screen test, and sign a pledge that he would not cause a postponement of production (as he had done on previous film sets). Coppola chose Brando over Ernest Borgnine based on Brando's screen test, which also won over Paramount's leadership. Brando later received an Academy Award for his role as a performer, something he refused to accept.

Coppola would later recollect:

Following its unveiling, the film received a lot of praise. Coppola also received multiple accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In several polls of the best films ever, the film regularly ranks at the top of the charts. It was chosen for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, and after Citizen Kane and Casablanca on the initial AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list in 1997, the American Film Institute ranked it third, behind Citizen Kane and Casablanca. When the list was first released in 2007, it was ranked second. The Godfather was certainly the greatest film ever made, and certainly the best-cast.

Coppola's next film, The Conversation, solidified his position as one of Hollywood's most versatile auteurs. The film was partially inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup (1966) and sparked a lot of curiosity when it was revealed that the film had the same surveillance and wire-tapping equipment used by Nixon administration officials to spy on political opponents before the Watergate controversy. Coppola said that this was simply coincidental, as the script for The Conversation was completed in the mid-1960s (before Richard Nixon's election) and the spy equipment used in the film was developed in conjunction with study and use of technical consultants rather than by newspaper reports about the Watergate break-in. However, the audience mistook the film as a retort to both the Watergate scandal and its fallout. Coppola received his first Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, and the film was a critical success.

Coppola wrote the screenplay for The Great Gatsby during filming of The Conversation. However, Coppola states, "I don't think that script was [actually] made."

In parallel to The Conversation, Coppola shot The Godfather Part II. It was the last major American motion picture to be shot in Technicolor. After the film's five-hour preview, George Lucas told Coppola, "You have two films." "Take one away, it doesn't work," referring to the movie's representation of two parallel storylines, one of a young Vito Corleone and the other of his son Michael. Coppola says that this film was the first major motion picture to use "Part II" in its name in the director's review of the DVD version of the film (which was released in 2002). Initially, The decision to name the film The Godfather Part II was initially opposed by the actor. According to Coppola, the studio's objection stemmed from the fear that viewers would be reluctant to see a film with such a name because the audience would presumably believe that having seen The Godfather, there was no reason to see an addition to the original film. However, the popularity of The Godfather Part II of The Godfather Part II began with the Hollywood tradition of numbered sequels. The film was released in 1974 and has gone on to receive acclaim from critics, with some comparing it to its predecessor. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and six, including three for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director.

The Godfather Part II is ranked No. 2 in the world's Top 20. In TV Guide's "50 Greatest Movies of All Time," the best movie of all time is ranked at No. 1 and is ranked at No. 119. "The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time" is 7 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "100 Greatest Movies of All Time." The film is also included on Leonard Maltin's list of the "100 Must See Films of the 20th Century" and Roger Ebert's "Best Movies" list. In 2002, it appeared on Sight & Sound's list of the top ten best films of all time, ranked No. 103, which placed it at No. 1. 4.

Coppola was the third director to be nominated for Best Picture in the same year. Victor Fleming was the first in 1939 with Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, and Alfred Hitchcock recapped the feat the next year with Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca. Two other directors, Herbert Ross, 1978 with The Goodbye Girl and The Turning Point, and Steven Soderbergh in 2000 with Erin Brockovich and Traffic, and Coppola. Coppola, on the other hand, is the only one to have exhibited the images nominated.

Coppola began filming Apocalypse Now, Joseph Conrad's version of Heart of Darkness set in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, following the success of The Godfather, The Conversation, and The Godfather Part II. Coppola himself appeared on TV news for a brief period of time. Many issues plagued the film's development, including typhoons, nervous breakdowns, the execution of Harvey Keitel's heart attack, Martin Sheen's heart attack, and extras from the Philippine military and half of the supplied helicopters left in the middle of scenes to battle rebels. When? It was postponed so often that it was called Apocalypse. Eleanor Coppola's Apocalypse Now, a 1991 documentary filmmaker's Hearts of Darkness, a filmmaker's Apocalypse, chronicles the crew's struggle during the production of Apocalypse Now, as well as a behind-the-scenes video shot by Eleanor. Coppola wrote, "We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had no money, too much gear, and little by little."

When the film first appeared in 1979 and was selected for the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, it was largely lauded by critics. The Tin Drum, directed by Volker Schlöndorff, was the film's highest honor at the Palme d'Or. Coppola quipped, "My film is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam." The fame of Apocalypse Now's fame has risen in time, and it is now considered by some as a masterpiece of the New Hollywood period and is often regarded as one of the best films ever made. Roger Ebert rated it to be the best film on the Vietnam War, and included it in his list of the best movies ever made in 2002.

Coppola re-released Apocalypse Now as Apocalypse Now Redux in 2001, extending the film's length to 200 minutes. Coppola re-released Apocalypse Now as Apocalypse Now (Final Cut), claiming that this version is his favorite.

Apocalypse Now is the conclusion of Coppola's 'golden period'. Despite pioneering the use of video-editing techniques that are now common practice in film, One from the Heart, 1982, was forced to sell the 23-acre Zoetrope Studio in 1983, which was later forced to sell the 23-acre Zoetrope Studio. He'll spend the remainder of the decade paying off his debts. After being renamed to American Zoetrope, Zoetrope Studios filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1990.

He directed The Strangers, a film version of S. E. Hinton's novel of the same name. Coppola attributed his inspiration for making the film to a middle school student who had read the book. The Outsiders is known for being the breakout film for a number of young actors who would go on to be big stars. Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, and C. Thomas Howell all had major roles in these films. Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe (in his film debut), Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, and Tom Cruise were among the cast members. Matt Dillon and several others appeared in Coppola's Rumble Fish, which was also based on an S. E. Hinton book and shot on location in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at The Outsiders. Carmine Coppola wrote and edited the musical score, including the title song "Stay Gold," which was based on a famous Robert Frost poem and performed for Stevie Wonder's film. The film was a modest box-office hit, grossing $25 million against a $10 million budget.

He directed Rumble Fish, based on the S. E. Hinton book of the same name, who also co-wrote the screenplay. Rumble Fish, shot in black-and-white as an homage to German expressionist films, focuses on the friendship between a respected former gang chief (Mickey Rourke) and his younger brother, Rusty James. (Matt Dillon). The film bombed at the box office, grossing a meager $2.5 million against a $10 million budget and adding to Coppola's financial difficulties.

Coppola's The Cotton Club, produced by Robert Evans, was founded in 1984. The film was nominated for several awards, including the Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Picture (Drama) and Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Art Direction. The film, on the other hand, failed miserably at the box-office, earning only $25.9 million from the $47.9 million privately invested by brothers Fred and Ed Doumani.

He produced an episode of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre called "Rip Van Winkle" (based on a short story), in which Harry Dean Stanton played the lead role.

Coppola made Captain EO, a 17-minute space fantasy for Disney theme parks executive produced by George Lucas, starring singer Michael Jackson, in 1986.

Kathleen Turner, Coppola's nephew Nicolas Cage, and Jim Carriery appeared in Peggy Sue Got Married, a 1986 film starring Kathleen Turner, Coppola's nephew Nicholas Cage, and Jim Carney. Peggy Sue Got Married was much like The Outsiders and Rumble Fish. Coppola gave Kathleen Turner her first and only Oscar nomination, earning her praise. It was Coppola's first box-office success since The Outsiders, and the film debuted at number 17 on Entertainment Weekly's list of "Top High School Movies."

Coppola reunited with James Caan for Gardens of Stone in the following year, but the film was overshadowed by Coppola's eldest son Gian-Carlo's death during the film's production. The film was not a critical hit and underperformed commercially, grossing only $5.6 million against a $13 million budget.

The Man and His Dream was Coppola's film that came a year after. Coppola had planned the project as a musical based on Preston Tucker's life and his efforts to produce and market the Tucker '48, with Marlon Brando leading after the introduction of The Godfather Part II. In the end, it was Jeff Bridges who played Preston Tucker. The film, which was budgeted at $24 million, received positive feedback and three nominations at the 62nd Academy Awards, but the box office took home a disappointing $19.65 million. Martin Landau received two awards: for Best Supporting Actor and Dean Tavoularis, according to BAFTA, Best Production Design was recognized.

Coppola appeared in 1989 with fellow Oscar-winning producers Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen for an anthology film titled New York Stories. Coppola produced the film with his daughter Sofia on the "Life Without Zoe" segment, starring his sister Talia Shire and co-wrote the film with his daughter Sofia. Critics generally dismissed "Life Without Zo" as the film's overall quality declined, although it was also recognized as the segment that brought the film's overall quality down. Hal Hinson of The Washington Post wrote a particularly critical analysis, stating that "It's impossible to know what Francis Coppola's Life Without Zoe is like." The film, co-written with his daughter Sofia, is a perplexing shame; it's by far the director's worst work to date."

He released The Godfather Part III, the third and final chapter of The Godfather trilogy in 1990. Coppola said that the first two films had brought the complete Corleone story to a close conclusion. Part III was supposed to be the epilogue to Coppola's first two films. In his audio commentary for Part II, he said that only a dire financial situation triggered by One from the Heart (1982) had compelled him to take up Paraphrasedoutput. Coppola and Puzo liked the name The Death of Michael Corleone, but Coppola and Puzo found it threatening, but Coppola and Puzo also used the word "Mex Corleone." Although not as well-received as the first two films, the film was still profitable, grossing $136 million against a $54 million budget. Any reviewers slammed Coppola's daughter Sofia, who stepped into the leading role of Mary Corleone, but was eventually dropped by Winona Ryder just as filming began. Despite this, The Godfather Part III received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. The film was unable to win any of these awards, making it the first film in the trilogy to do so.

In September 2020, a limited theatrical release of Mario Puzo's The Death of Michael Corleone, Coda: The Godfather, Coda, was announced in September 2020, as the film's 30th anniversary. Coppola said the film is the version he and Puzo had intended and "vindicates" its place among the trilogy and his daughter Sofia's success.

Coppola produced and produced Dracula's Bram Stoker in 1992. It was designed to mimic the book more closely than recent film adaptations, being based on Bram Stoker's book. Gary Oldman played the titular role, with Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins in supporting roles. The film became a box-office hit, grossing $82,522,790 in the United States, making it the 15th highest-grossing film of the year. The country's best-grossing film of the year so far, earning $215,692 against a budget of $40,000.902 fell even higher. Costume Design, Makeup, and Sound Editing were all nominated for Academy Award for costume design, Makeup, and Sound Editing.

Coppola's next project was Jack, which was first announced on August 9, 1996. Jack Powell, a ten-year-old boy whose cells are growing at four times faster rate due to Werner syndrome, making him appear as a 40-year-old man at the age of ten. Jack also starred Jennifer Lopez, Fran Drescher, and Michael McKean in supporting roles, as well as Diane Lane, Brian Kerwin, and Bill Cosby. Despite a modest box-office success, grossing $58 million domestically on an estimated $45 million budget, some of whom disliked the film's abrupt comparison between real comedy and tragic melodrama. It was also unfavorably compared to the 1988 film Big, in which Tom Hanks also played a child in a grown man's body. Most analysts agreed that the screenplay was poorly written, not funny, and that it had unconvincing and bizarre drama. Coppola was deemed too gifted to be making this sort of film by other commentators. Coppola has defended it despite being mocked for making the film, saying he is not concerned with the final cut of the film. He had been friends with Robin Williams for many years and had always wanted to work with him as an actor. When Williams was told the screenplay for Jack, he said he would only agree to do it if Coppola agreed to act as director.

The Rainmaker, Coppola's last film in the 1990s, was based on John Grisham's 1995 book of the same name. The film, which was given an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was well received by critics, who gave it an 83% verdict. "I have loved several of the Grisham movies," Roger Ebert wrote about them, "I have often enjoyed the storyteller's craft rather than the novelist's representation." Coppola emphasizes the diversity of a young lawyer's work, where every client is important, but the majority of them require more than a lawyer." "The intelligence and subtlety of The Rainmaker surprised me by surprise," James Berardinelli said of the film, "stands above any other filmed Grisham adaptation." "To me, it's the best adaptation of any of [my books]," Grisham said of the film. I adore the film. It's so well done." The film earned more than the estimated production budget of $40 million, but it was a disappointment compared to previous films based on Grisham books.

Coppola started thinking about motion pictures based on Carlo Collodi's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, 19th-century Carlo Collodi's book The Adventures of Pinocchio, and in 1991, Coppola and Warner Bros. began discussing the scheme, as well as two others based on J. Edgar Hoover's book The Secret Garden, a children's book. These discussions culminated in discussions for Coppola to produce and manage the Pinocchio project for Warner Bros., as well as The Secret Garden (which was created by American Zoetrope but not managed by Agnieszka Holland) and Hoover, which never came to fruition. Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar film, which was later released by Warner Bros, was eventually released in 2011.)

However, Coppola and Warner Bros. came to a stalemate in mid-1991 over Coppola's compensation for his Pinocchio services. Coppola's 1994 film was shot in Columbia Pictures, which was later discovered by another studio. Warner Brothers wrote to Columbia, claiming that it had vested the rights to Coppola's scheme, which led to Columbia's eventual abandonment of the project. Coppola filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Columbia Pictures had wrongfully prevented Columbia Pictures from filming the film, according to Coppola.

The parties deferred this question, and a deal was finally reached on July 3, 1998, when the jurors in the resultant court case awarded Coppola $20 million as compensation for missing the Pinocchio film project. Warner Bros. announced on the same day that it would appeal the decision. Coppola was given a further $60 million in punitive damages on top of his allegations that Warner Bros. stifled his proposed version a week later this week. However, the jury's $60 million award to Coppola was reversed by Judge Madeleine Flier in October 1998. Warner Bros. and Coppola then appealed each other's decision, which Coppola obtained in order to have his $60 million award restored. Both counts were dismissed in March 2001 by the California Court of Appeals. The California Supreme Court refused to hear the appellate decision in July 2001, effectively ending the litigation process.

Coppola filed a lawsuit against Carl Sagan and Warner Bros. Sagan died a week earlier, and Coppola said that Sagan's Contact was based on a tale told by the pair during a television special on May 28, 1976 titled First Contact. Coppola and Sagan were to split proceeds from the campaign, as well as any novel Sagan will write with American Zoetrope and Children's Television Workshop Productions as part of the development agreement. The television show was never produced, but Simon & Schuster's Contact and Warner Bros. released in 1985, paving the way for the creation of a film version. Coppola sued at least $250,000 in compensatory damages and an injunction against the film's production or distribution. Despite Sagan's right to have broken some of the terms of the deal, the case was dismissed in February 1998 because Coppola had waited too long to file a lawsuit.

Coppola was brought by MGM to oversee another re-editing of the film Supernova, costing $1 million at his American Zoetrope plant in Northern California in August 1999. Angela Bassett's and James Spader's faces were digitally placed on the bodies of (a computer-tinted) Robin Tunney and Peter Facinelli's bodies so that their characters could have a love scene. However, Coppola's re-edited version had negative test screening and didn't receive the PG-13 rating that the studio wanted, not the MPAA's. Walter Hill, the film's special effects designer, Patrick Tatopoulos, said that the film should be more grotesque, strange, and troubling, but not with full makeup effects. Coppola said, "I hope that my film career has helped to improve the picture and fixed some of the issues that were caused by the absence of a director." MGM had planned to film the film by October 1999. The film was finally released on January 17, 2000, almost two years later than expected.

Coppola returned to directing with Youth Without Youth in 2007, based on the same name used by Romanian author Mircea Eliade. The film was poorly reviewed, with Rotten Tomatoes getting a 30% "rotten" rating. It was designed for about $19 million and had a limited number of dealers, but the box-office was only operating $2,624,759 at the time. Coppola has also announced plans to produce his own films in order to avoid the marketing effort that goes into most films that are intended to appeal to a large audience.

Coppola produced Tetro in 2009. It was "set in Argentina," with the reunion of two brothers. The story follows the rivalries that emerged as a result of technological shifts that have existed for generations of an Italian immigrant family. Critical commentators generally praised the film. The film has a weighted average metascore of 63% based on 19 studies, which is based on Metacritic. Rotten Tomatoes said that 70% of critics gave positive feedback based on 105 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. "A nuanced reflection on family dynamics, Tetro's detaining photos, and a shifting narrative compensated for the Rotten Tomatoes' uneventful story." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film 3 actors for being "boldly operatic, involving family feud, wartime, family feud, decades of war, melodrama, love, and violence," Ebert said of Alden Ehrenreich, who has praised him as "the new Leonardo DiCaprio." Todd McCarthy of Variety gave the film a B+ rating, citing that "when Coppola finds creative nirvana, he has a difficult time delivering the complete goods." Richard Corliss of Time gave the film a mixed review, lauding Ehrenreich's appearance but claiming Coppola "has made a film in which plenty happens but nothing rings true." Against a budget of $5,000, the film earned $2,636,774 worldwide.

Twixt, starring Val Kilmer, Elle Fanning, Joanne Whalley, and Bruce Dern, was released to film festivals in late 2011 and was announced theatrically in early 2012. It received critical acclaim in France, but mainly negative reviews elsewhere.

In 2015, Coppola stated

Distant Vision is a semi-autobiographical unfinished live broadcast project that was created in real-time. In June 2015 and UCLA School of Theatre in July 2016, proof of concepts were performed before small audiences at Oklahoma City Community College in June 2015.

The Godfather Coda, a re-edit of Godfather III, had a limited theatrical release in December 2020, followed by a digital and Blu-ray release in 2021. Because Mario Puzo died before they had a chance to write the story, Coppola said that The Godfather Part IV was never produced. Andy Garca has since said that the film's script was almost made.

Coppola was the jury president of the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, and he also appeared as a special guest at the 17th Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä, Finland, and the 46th International Thessaloniki Film Festival in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Coppola revealed in April 2019 that he wants to control Megalopolis, which he had been building for many years before. "I want to start this year by making a major work utilizing all I've learned during my long career, beginning at age 16, which I've described as Megalopolis." He had intended to direct the film, which was a tale about the aftermath and rebuilding of New York City after a massive earthquake, but the cause was seen as too risky after the September 11 attacks.

Coppola had begun talks with actors on the project in August 2021 and that he planned to begin principal photography in 2022. Filming was scheduled from September 6, 2022, to February 2, 2023, as it was announced in April 2022. Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, and Laurence Fishburne were among the star cast members of May 2022. Filming at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, Georgia, was announced in July, but it would begin in November 2022. Aubrey Plaza, Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, James Remar, and Grace VanderWaal were among the cast members in August. Chloe Fineman, Dustin Hoffman, Bailey Ives, Isabelle Kusman, and D.B. were among the many notable individuals honoured in early October. Sweeney will also be included in the cast.

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