Is Francis Ford Coppola dead?

[MacGuffin]

Francis Ford Coppola Has Started Shooting His Next Film 'Twixt Now And Sunrise'
Val Kilmer, Elle Fanning & Bruce Dern Star
Source: The Playlist

While he's set to receive a honorary Oscar next month, Francis Ford Coppola continues with his late-career burst of energy, as he has already quietly begun filming his third feature in four years.

Titled "Twixt Now And Sunrise," the film is based on a short story by Coppola and while details are being kept under wraps, it is said to be in the horror/thriller vein. The cast is an intriguing one with Val Kilmer, Elle Fanning (also starring in daughter Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere") and Bruce Dern (who starred in Coppola scribed "The Great Gatsby") leading the way. The horror genre isn't exactly new for Coppola ("Dementia 13," "Bram Stoker's Dracula") but it is a genre he's rarely dipped into, so we're very curious to learn more about this one. Filming is underway in Napa though it's unclear if this is the same project Coppola was in Turkey late last year scouting locations for.

We're pretty inspired by Coppola's late career resurgence and particularly his continuing to work outside the studio system. "Tetro" and "Youth Without Youth," while not perfect, were invigorating, creative and highly ambitious pieces of work; the kinds of films you expect from someone half Coppola's age. Clearly, freed from the various caprices of studios, Coppola has never been more invigorated.

[Reinhold]

http://pitchfork.com/news/41193-dan-deacon-to-score-francis-ford-coppola-film/

Pitchfork reports that the film will be scored by Dan Deacon

[Champion Souza]

He recently wrapped his latest picture,  "Twixt Now and Sunrise," based on an alcohol-induced dream he had in Turkey. The film even features the latest 3-D technology – but as a brief dramatic segment that serves the story, rather than the typical two-hour, multiplex gimmick.

Interview at The 99 Percent.

[MacGuffin]

Bruce Dern Says Francis Ford Coppola's 'Twixt Now And Sunrise' A Murder Mystery With Parts In Rhyme
Source: ThePlaylist

Despite production taking place late last year, thus far we've received only trickles of information about Francis Ford Coppola's reportedly gothic and Poe-inspired "Twixt Now And Sunrise," which stars Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Ben Chaplin and Elle Fanning among others. Coppola himself teased that the way he plans to screen the film is "something that's never been done before" which presumably has something to do with the use of 3D technology as "a brief dramatic segment that serves the story, rather than the typical two-hour, multiplex gimmick." Most recently, star Val Kilmer added that he plays a Mario Puzo-esque writer "waiting for his masterpiece" and noted that the 3-D would be utilized for "a couple of dream sequences." Now we have a little to hang from. After being honored at the Gold Coast Film Festival, actor Bruce Dern has discussed the project in a little more detail with writer Roger Friedman happily relaying what Dern spilled on the "gothic thriller that concerns Edgar Allen Poe." Dern has revealed the first hint of plot to Showbiz411 noting that he'll play "the sheriff in a spooky town with a murder mystery [while] Kilmer is a second tier mystery writer who comes to town and investigates its past. There's a clock steeple in the town with different time on each of its four sides." The actor also added that Coppola himself has proclaimed that this project has "more of him in it than any of his films" and, most interestingly, that parts of the film will actually be in rhyme. We guess the inspiration from Poe stems more directly than just his themes then? Comparisons to the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne have also been noted in the past; we can't even begin to imagine what this means for electronic artist Dan Deacon whose scoring the pic. Consider us now completely sold by this latest offering from Coppola which particularly excites us as major fans of his last effort, the black and white drama "Tetro" starring Vincent Gallo and Alden Ehrenreich. A release or (at least) premiere sometime around Halloween was previously discussed as the target which has only been affirmed by subsequent descriptions of the project as a "Halloween extravaganza."

[Ravi]

http://www.slashfilm.com/francis-ford-coppola/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashfilm+%28%2FFilm%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

With 'Twixt,' Francis Ford Coppola Wants to Create a Live, Dynamic Cinema Experience
Posted on Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 by Russ Fischer

One word: inspiring. Today Francis Ford Coppola made his first appearance at the San Diego Comic Con since 1991, bringing with him the electronic musician Dan Deacon and actor Val Kilmer. Those two men were among his collaborators on a new film called Twixt, which is a sort of gothic horror story / murder mystery set in a small northern California town. But Twixt, the movie, was only part of the panel and, frankly, it was the least part of why today's event is the best thing I've ever seen in Hall H at Comic Con.

The real hook with Twixt is what Mr. Coppola wants to do with it: he plans a 30-city tour later this year in which he and Dan Deacon, and possibly other talents, will create a dynamic assembly of the film as it plays to each audience. Essentially, they have a great deal of footage which adds up to a movie called Twixt, but depending upon where and when you see the presentation, you might see a totally different telling of the story than others. In other words: 'Remixd'? Something like that.

There's a lot of material to cover here, and I'll begin with a description of the footage and then move into a recap of the panel, after the break.

Let's begin with the footage. What we were shown at first follows a hack horror writer (Val Kilmer) as he enters Swan Valley, where he is set to do a book signing. (At a hardware store, as it turns out. Indignity!) Tom Waits narrates our first pass through the town, introducing local elements such as a clock tower with many faces that show different times, and a group of 'vampire' kids that camp at the edge of town, led by "Flamingo, a seducer of innocent youth," played in exaggerated goth/vampire makeup by Alden Ehrenreich.

Val Kilmer's character is tormented by his inadequacy and the fact that he needs to write crappy books to make a living. ("I write because of the incessant financial burdens that found me," which is seemingly a very personal note from Mr. Coppola.) But he is introduced both to a current murder mystery by Bruce Dern (who also demonstrates "an electric chair for killing vampires") and to an older local murder legend. That latter murder story comes via a dream in which Edgar Allan Poe (Ben Chaplin) converses with the writer.

There is a lot more — very funny moments of Kilmer's character trying to write; dream sequences in black and white that are sometimes very old-school from a technological standpoint; a very Twin Peaks-like vibe in the Swan Valley town area; and conversations with what seems to be the spirit of a dead girl (Elle Fanning).

Most of the footage looked great, and Mr. Coppola explained that as he didn't like wearing glasses to watch 3D films ("I watched Avatar, but took the glasses off for much of the movie") he will present Twixt with only certain segments in 3D.

About the story — seem confusing so far? Maybe so. The use of 3D is a pretty old-school approach to the movie, but there is a lot about Twixt that represents what the director called "the evolving technology of the cinema." At the head of the panel, he talked about the fact that cinema is a young art form, only over one hundred years, and still evolving. He bemoaned the idea that cinema now is what cinema will be.

Cinema is so young! How dare anyone think all it has got up its sleeve is more 3D where the ticket prices go up? Cinema is a baby. Of course we're going to see wonderful innovations come; there will be many.

So the meat of the Twixt presentation was a demonstration of an iPad controlled system by which unique edits of the film could be created on the fly. Here's the interface, thanks to @jonniechang:



What followed was a demonstration of the possibilities of this system in practical use. Mr. Coppola created a couple different versions of the first trailer by reassembling the order of the scenes, sometimes showing much longer versions of various bits of dialogue. We essentially watched him edit the movie, to some degree, on the fly, and that's what's promised for the tour. To amuse himself and the crowd, he even put the system on 'shuffle' and we watched what it churned out — a workable assembly trailer that was quite different from the others. The  presentation was a bit glitchy, but the panel participants got through the problems with the tech using humor and charm. It was a dress rehearsal, as they explained, rather than a final performance.

The panel participants were given a standing ovation before and after the panel, and throughout the experience the audience seemed to be totally in the palm of Mr. Coppola's hand. That to me was more important than anything else — there is an audience that is completely willing to go along with this experiment. They may even be hungry for it. Twixt, as a film or a narrative, may not be the next step of cinema. But seeing Francis Ford Coppola experiment is fascinating, and I'm thrilled I was there to experience it. I expect many other attendees today felt the same.

There are a lot of questions to ask about this approach to filmmaking, primary among which is whether or not there is one 'master' narrative that he conisders primary among all others, and then also what the idea of tweaking/remixing the story on the fly says about the construction of a film narrative.Putting certain shots or sequences before others can have a huge effect on their meaning, and by changing the rigor of how footage is ordered, what does that do to the very notion of telling a nuanced film story? I'm eager to discover these answers.

These are the 3D 'glasses' that were handed out before the panel:

[polkablues]

At this point, I would actually be sadder if he quit making wine than movies.

[pete]

his wine blows

[RegularKarate]

At this point, I would actually be sadder if he quit making wine than movies.

Yeah, fuck him for trying something different!

[polkablues]

I didn't mean he shouldn't do whatever the hell he wants, I just meant that I'm finding I no longer care.  If he wants to dress up as Peter Greenaway for Halloween, I'm not going to stand in his way.  I'm just not personally interested.

[Stefen]

Vulture ripped it.

We love Francis Ford Coppola, and his warm presence made him a congenial host on the panel for Twixt, his upcoming digital drama starring Val Kilmer and Elle Fanning. However, the movie looked cheap and hammy, like an early nineties CD-ROM adventure game, while Coppola's attempts to cue up and reshuffle scenes via iPad went disastrously. It was a fun disaster, but it doesn't bode well for the director's hopes to take the movie out on a national roadshow.

This worries me about The Master since they share the same DP. That's silly, right? RIGHT?

[Jeremy Blackman]

Yes, it is.

[john]

It's also silly for anyone to take Vulture's criticisms with anything more than a grain of salt.

For me, FFC is two for two with his late career resurgence and I expect the winning streak to continue.

Of course, this could also be because Twixt sounds right in my wheelhouse. A Coppola horror film starring Val Kilmer, narrated by Tom Waits is probably the most exciting film to look forward to in a post-Tree of Life year.

Even if the presentation is a complete debacle (it won't be), I imagine there will be an interesting an beautifully shot traditionally structured film to look forward to on DVD.

Hopefully, with a thirty city tour, I can catch this a couple of times and really see how much variation there will be from screening to screening.

[Stefen]

The idea of FFC essentially DJ'ing cracks me up.

[wilder]

Francis Ford Coppola Quietly Working On An "Ambitious," Epic Studio Movie & Hopes To Start Casting Soon
via The Playlist

You would you have to go back all the way to 1997's "The Rainmaker" to see Francis Ford Coppola's last fully fledged studio picture. Since then, the legendary director has been following his own muse, taking on ambitious if not always entirely successful features made outside of Hollywood, resulting in a trio of pictures: the fantasy "Youth Without Youth," the black-and-white sibling drama "Tetro" and the 3D horror "Twixt." Coppola has long talked about enjoying the freedom that comes with independence, but sometimes you need someone with big pockets to help bring certain stories to life, and it looks like the 73-year-old filmmaker is ready to deliver another big, epic picture.

Coppola recently chatted with EW to talk about the new 5-film Blu-ray box set of his work that includes "Apocalypse Now," "Apocalypse Now Redux," "The Conversation," "Tetro" and "One From The Heart" (yeah, it's a pretty odd grab-bag release). Asked what he was up to next, Coppola revealed that he's developing something quite large in scope, and apparently already has financing in place, and is eager to start looking at actors to take it on.

"I have a secret investor that has infinite money. I learned what I learned from my three smaller films, and wanted to write a bigger film. I've been writing it. It's so ambitious so I decided to go to L.A. and make a film out of a studio that has all the costume rentals, and where all the actors are," he said, with EW noting he'll have an office at Paramount next year. "My story is set in New York. I have a first draft. I'm really ready for a casting phase. Movies are big in proportion to the period. It starts in the middle of the '20s, and there are sections in the '30s and the late '40s, and it goes until the late '60s."

[wilder]

Francis Ford Coppola to Direct Italian-American Saga
via The Hollywood Reporter

The helmer is readying an untitled film that will chronicle an Italian-American family and span from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Francis Ford Coppola is returning to the Italian-American experience for his next directing effort.

The Godfather helmer is readying an untitled film that will chronicle an Italian-American family and span from the 1930s to the 1960s. Coppola became one of the most celebrated directors in cinema after bringing the Corleone family saga to the big screen. The Godfather covers a similar timeframe, spanning from 1945-55.

Coppola is writing the screenplay, which is described as a coming-of-age story that focuses on a boy and girl in their late teens, and has set up offices on the Paramount lot. However, there have been no conversations yet about whether the studio will be involved with financing or distributing the film.

Coppola has hired Courtney Bright and Nicole Daniels, who recently cast daughter Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring. Longtime Coppola family collaborator Fred Roos is producing.

Though Coppola continues to direct regularly -- he most recently helmed the 2011 horror thriller Twixt -- he hasn't returned to the story of Italian-Americans since 1990's The Godfather III, the final chapter about the Corleone crime family. The successful winemaker's past few films have been independently or self-financed.

Coppola is repped by attorney Barry Hirsch.