News

The year 2024 was an eventful one for the Coppola family. While the patriarch, Francis Ford Coppola, spent millions of his personal money on his passion-project Megalopolis, his nephews, Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage, delivered memorable supporting performances in the films Queer and Longlegs. But that's not all; Gia Coppola, the only daughter of the late Gian-Carlo Coppola, released her third feature film, The Last Showgirl, to considerable acclaim. This weekend, the drama passed a new domestic box office milestone, even as its star, Pamela Anderson, was overlooked by the Academy.

Francis Ford Coppolas ambitious, deeply personal passion project Megalopolis ends with a touching dedication, For my beloved, that dedicates the movie to one of the most important people in the directors life. After a rocky road of development hell, behind-the-scenes drama, and distribution deal chaos, Megalopolis has made it into theaters and audiences across the world are wrapping their heads around it. The filmmaker has been dreaming up ideas for this epic sci-fi drama since the 1970s, and thanks to Coppolas self-financed $120 million budget, the movie is finally a reality.

Since Megalopolis has been rattling around Coppolas head for decades, occupying his mind for most of his life, its one of his most personal movies. Its a family affair; the cast and crew are full of Coppolas relatives. His son Roman Coppola was the films second unit director. His sister Talia Shire, his nephew Jason Schwartzman, and his granddaughter Romy Mars...

Megalopolis created an astonishing buzz as the movie went on to be the most ambitious project of Francis Ford Coppola in recent times. When many major studios backed off from the movie, the director who developed the script for decades, self-financed the project.

Adam Driver in Megalopolis. Credit: Francis Ford Coppola/Yt

Coppola is one of the most talented auteurs currently working in Hollywood. His cinematic visions have done wonders with several big titles including his masterpiece trilogy, The Godfather and acclaimed war movie, Apocalypse Now. However, his most recent work Megalopolis has met with disastrous critical reviews.

Francis Ford Coppola Doesn’t Regret Making Megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola. Credit: Dick Thomas Johnson/Wikimedia Commons

Megalopolis’ reviews following the Cannes premiere of the Francis Ford Coppola dream project were not what the director had expected. The movie mostly met with mixed reviews and the Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Shia Labeouf...

Eleanor Coppola, the matriarch of a Hollywood dynasty who won an Emmy for directing the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse and helmed her first narrative feature at age 80, died Friday. She was 87.

Coppola died at her home in Rutherford, California, her family said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Survivors include her husband of 61 years, five-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, 85; their daughter, Sofia Coppola, the director, producer and Oscar-winning screenwriter; and their son, Roman Coppola, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter.

Her oldest child, actor Gian-Carlo Coppola, died in 1986 at age 22 in a speedboat accident.

Eleanor Coppola often went on location with Francis, and during the making of his Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now (1979), she was in the Philippines to shoot footage with a 16mm camera and conduct interviews, material that supposedly was to be used by the United Artists publicity department.

It would all be seen in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.

Gia Coppola’s last name is, well, highly familiar. And with her first feature film, Palo Alto, out today, she joins grandfather Francis Ford Coppola, aunt Sofia Coppola, and cousins Nicolas Cage, Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola, and more, in the family business. (Her father, Gian-Carlo Coppola, died before she was born.) Palo Alto is adapted from James Franco’s book of short stories, and her film is moody and funny and just a little bit gritty, reminiscent of the work of both Aunt Sofia and Kids director Larry Clark. Vulture spoke to Coppola about teen movies, Instagram research, and famous families.The notes for the movie mention American Graffiti, The Last Picture Show, and The Outsiders as your favorite teen movies. Do you like any that are more current?I felt like there hadn't been modern depictions of teenagers I really liked — that’s why I was excited about the...

Note: This review is based on the screening on Sunday, September 11th. Aware that the film may be remixed and interactive at other showings my experience may not reflect your own. To be clear, the interactive features were not in play during this screening.

Let’s clear the air and say the obvious: Francis Ford Coppola made The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and The Conversation in less than a decade. The ‘80s had some gems like Rumble Fish, but the ‘90s, oy, those ‘90s. His 2000s, on the other hand, can certainly be best described as weird. Choosing to do modest, “underground” films, it seems that each new gesture was unpredictable at best, which brings us to Twixt. Twixt is not a blockbuster, but it is certainly a genre piece; a dream-inspired, Dan Deacon scored, Poe-themed vampire ghost murder story genre piece. It is a weird stand out even for the Coppola portfolio.

Sad news to report in Hollywood today. Nicolas Cage’s father August Coppola has died of a heart attack at age 75. Cage’s rep Annett Wolf released the news, saying that he passed on Tuesday. Coppola was a literature professor and served as dean of creative arts at San Francisco State University. Besides Cage, Coppola is survived by sons Christopher and Marc, and three grandchildren. According to Popeater, Nicholas Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire and the cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, late film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola and...