Tetro

[MacGuffin]

Coppola Announces New Film Project

Francis Ford Coppola will follow-up his directorial return "Youth Without Youth" with a vaguely autobiographical film, the director told The Associated Press Monday.

Coppola, who is currently putting the final touches on "Youth Without Youth," his first film in a decade, plans to next produce and direct "Tetro." The film will follow the rivalries born out of creative differences passed down through generations of an artistic Italian immigrant family not unlike Coppola's.

Set in Argentina (not Coppola's native New York), "Tetro" fictionalizes what Coppola calls his "very unusual family," which has been populated by artists since his father's generation.

"I think at this age, I'm more disposed to look at my life in terms of dramatic material," the 67-year-old filmmaker said Tuesday, speaking from his home in Napa Valley, Calif. "Maybe I'm less frightened or more confident about writing something that is fiction even though it has its basis in real things that I've seen and felt. Maybe it won't offend anybody, I hope."

Coppola remembers wasted time spent where family members weren't speaking for years but he happily assures that in his family now, "everybody is talking."

Coppola's announcement perhaps most signified that the director is now clearly embarking on new active period in his career after a dormant decade following 1997's "The Rainmaker" The change was partly sparked by Coppola's abandonment of his long-planned futuristic epic "Megalopolis," which he has shelved in place of smaller, more personal films.

"Youth Without Youth," starring Tim Roth, was filmed in Romania and is due out in the second half of 2007. The experience, Coppola says, reinvigorated him.

"It's a very big change of the type of career that I had before. I always wanted to be a filmmaker who wrote his own original material," he says, recalling his earlier movies "The Conversation" (1974) and "The Rain People" (1969).

Coppola now hopes to write and direct films at the pace of Woody Allen something he can finance partly because of the success of his wine business.

"I view this as the career I always wished I could have," Coppola says. "Now, I'm in a place where I can be my own patron."

"Tetro" will star Matt Dillon, Coppola's third film with the actor, the other two being 1983's back-to-back "The Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish." Production is scheduled to begin in Buenos Aires late this year.

[MacGuffin]

Bardem May Team With Coppola For 'Tetro,' Clears His Throat For 'Nine'
Source: MTV

It's been a tough time for Francis Ford Coppola recently. Even as his eagerly anticipated return to filmmaking, "Youth Without Youth," is set for release, news broke last week that a burglary has put a future Coppola film, "Tetro," in jeopardy.

At least the filmmaking titan can expect one concerned phone call soon. Oscar nominee Javier Bardem told me yesterday, "I should call him today or tomorrow." Bardem has been rumored to play a role in "Tetro," a secretive film rumored to star Matt Dillon and begin shooting in February. Bardem confirmed to me that his teaming with Coppola could happen. "I am associated [with "Tetro." It was a conversation Francis and I had months ago. Since then we haven't talked very much. He didn't know when he was going to make it. Now it's time that we speak and see what's going on."

Bardem called the script "amazing," though he quickly added that his would be "a small part." Like all Coppola fans, Bardem however doesn't know what the crime means to the film's future. "After what happened, I don't know whats going to happen," he said.

Meanwhile Bardem said reports of him playing the lead in the musical, "Nine," are slightly premature. It's one of several projects he's considering, he said. And yes, he would sing in it and that's part of the fun. "I don't see myself doing a musical but that's why I wanted to take a look at it. I can't imagine myself doing it. I said, 'that's challenging, lets take a look.'"

[MacGuffin]

Francis Ford Coppola talks about his next project – TETRO
Source: Collider.com

The other day I did something that I'd only dreamed about since moving to Los Angeles – I got to ask Francis Ford Coppola some questions at the press day for his new movie "Youth Without Youth."

After all, this is a man who's made a number of movies that are revered by millions of film lovers worldwide. From "The Godfather" to "Apocalypse Now," or from "The Outsiders" to "Dracula," he's made films that mean a great deal to a lot of people – myself included.

So when I got the invite to participate in a roundtable interview with one of the legends of cinema... I cleared my previous commitments and got to the hotel quite early. And I wasn't alone... as a number of the other journalists in the room were just as excited as Mr. Coppola hasn't done a press day in many, many years.

And while the entire transcript will be posted closer to the release of his new movie, I wanted to post his comments about his next movie "Tetro" right now.

If you've been following the news over the last few weeks, you may have heard about a break in at his Buenos Aires residence where his computer and other important documents were stolen – including his backup computer. It was all over the internet and the robbery made national news.

But while reports were not clear if the robber (or robbers) had made away with his only copy of the script, Mr. Coppola told us that he was quite surprised at the level of attention and calmed our nerves that he did, in fact, have more copies of the script.

And even though the break-in happened in the city where he was planning on shooting his next movie... he remains undeterred and he's still going to shoot there...just a bit later than expected.

So for those curious about his next movie and who's in it and what it's about, here's what he had to say: 

Collider: How has the robbery in South America affected your next project?

Francis Ford Coppola: Anyone who's gotten robbed, it's always depressing, and I did lose some data. I didn't lose the script. They said the script is gone, but I have other copies of the script. Obviously I had to send it to actors and stuff, so no. I was astonished that that got such news coverage.

Collider: Can you talk about the next project and the casting?

Coppola: The next project is exciting because I've used Youth Without Youth as a crutch to get into a world of personal filmmaking where I'm not subject to the notes of studios. You know, I get the notes from my colleagues, Walter Merch. It's not that I don't want notes. I do want notes, but I don't want so many notes that they start contradicting themselves or that they start turning it into the typical movies that come out every Friday. So basically part of my work now is that I can create the money I use to finance the movie. And in this case the film, it's called Tetro, the name of a character. It's very personal. It's kind of like Tennessee Williams' period. I want to make a passionate story about brothers and fathers and all of that tumult that I've seen in different times of my life. It's a little bit the stuff I've seen in my family, but it's not, it's totally fiction. 

Collider: Is it a more typical narrative or more like this one?

Coppola: I think Youth Without Youth is a narrative. I believe cinema is more like poetry than the narrative so it works on metaphor and stuff so, whereas I see this as, you'd call this as a more traditional narrative like Rocco and his Brothers or something, but I hope it will have poetry and metaphor in it as well. But it's got as its theme trying to investigate the notions of existence and consciousness.

Collider:  Have you cast Tetro?

Coppola: Yeah, I have Tetro completely cast. I already mentioned Matt Dillon. Did I name all the actors or should I make a press release of it? I have the whole cast. What's been announced already is Javier Bardem, but his part is not a huge part. Matt Dillon, a very exciting new young actor who you wouldn't know anyway, but to give you one tidbit Maribel Verdu, the Spanish actress who was in Y Tu Mama Tambien. Do you know Maribel? She's wonderful. So it's going to be an interesting thing.

Collider: When do you start filming?

Coppola: I was supposed to start filming next month but because of the opening I'm unable to so I have to start right after Christmas, which is a drag.

Collider: And where are you filming?

Coppola: In Buenos Aires, in La Boca.

[MacGuffin]

Movie newbie joins Coppola's 'Tetro' family
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Francis Ford Coppola has chosen newcomer Alden Ehrenreich to star in his family drama "Tetro."

Maribel Verdu ("Pan's Labyrinth") also is joining the cast, and Javier Bardem has an offer for a key role.

Written by Coppola, the script follows a young man (Ehrenreich) journeying to Buenos Aires to find his brother, who left the family years earlier.

Verdu will play the brother's girlfriend.

Bardem, whose deal depends on scheduling, would play an Argentinean literary critic named Unknown. Longtime Coppola cohorts Fred Roos and Anahid Nazarian are exec producing.

Production is due to start February in Buenos Aires.

While Ehrenreich's only credits are an episode of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and an episode of the CW's "Supernatural," he has a big-name backer: Steven Spielberg. The director discovered Ehrenreich at a bat mitzvah, where the teenager had done a video for a friend.

[MacGuffin]

Coppola Reveals Details Of Next Film, 'Tetro' -- A 'Semi-Autobiographical Vision'
' 'Tetro' deals with personal themes that come out of my life -- though not my life,' director says.
Source: MTV

In some of the greatest films of all time, Oscar winning writer/director Francis Ford Coppola has trafficked in nuance, in ambiguity, in shades of gray. By comparison, his next film, "Tetro," is going to seem a little black and white — literally.

"It will be in black and white," Coppola revealed of the flick, set to being shooting soon in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "[Although] there are sequences, interestingly enough, that are inspired by 'Tales of Hoffman' and 'The Red Shoes' — and those will be in Technicolor."

It's a combination of styles that seems to fit perfectly with Coppola's "semi-autobiographical vision," half remembered with stunning vibrancy, half with the washed-out clarity of an old home movie. But while "Tetro" is based, at least in part, on Coppola's own childhood, it would be a mistake to think of it as anything resembling nonfiction, the director insisted.

"It's written out of memories and elements of my own life," he said. "But it's not [strictly] autobiographical. I'm fictionalizing things from my very early life. The father in 'Tetro' is a monster, and my father was the most wonderful man. Sometimes I took two or three relatives and combined them; so I've made a fiction piece more like a Tennessee Williams play."

That would be plays like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "A Streetcar Named Desire" and especially "The Glass Menagerie," where family conflicts are blown up to explore interpersonal demons. "Tetro" will be rife with those sorts of dynamics, Coppola said. "It's an interesting position to be inside a family with so many talented people," he explained. (Coppola's daughter, Sofia, and father, Carmine, have both won Oscars. His nephew is Nic Cage.) "To understand the dynamics, the way you idolize some of them, the competitions. Did this brother help that brother? 'Tetro' deals with personal themes that come out of my life — though not my life."

One person, real or imagined, who won't be joining Coppola in Buenos Aires — where the director is shooting because "that's a place that had many Italian immigrants" — is Matt Dillon, long rumored to be attached to the project. "Unfortunately the schedule got shifted and I missed the boat with Matt," Coppola confessed. "He has to start his new film. That's the one part that's uncast. It is the part of Tetro." In the end, Coppola admits that his movie will be somewhat noncommercial — and that doesn't worry him one bit.

"I'm spending my money," he said. "These are movies that would never get past any sensible studio that I'm not making to make money."

[MacGuffin]

Gallo hops to 'Tetro' drama
Source: Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK -- Vincent Gallo is joining Javier Bardem in writer-director Francis Ford Coppola's family drama "Tetro" for American Zoetrope.

The "Brown Bunny" actor-director will play the title character, a brother in a family torn apart by rivalries and betrayal. Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich plays the younger brother who searches for him in Buenos Aires. Bardem plays an Argentinean literary critic, and Maribel Verdu plays Tetro's longtime love interest.

Gallo is known for his on-set battles directing "Buffalo '66," his provocative offscreen comments and a sexually explicit "Bunny" scene with one-time girlfriend Chloe Sevigny.

The less-than-$15 million project begins principal photography March 31 on location in Buenos Aires. A 2009 release with an as-yet-undetermined distributor is planned.

[Bethie]

Well. I'm interested.

[MacGuffin]

Coppola to shoot 'Tetro' in Argentina
By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer

In the trendy heart of Argentina's Italian community, Francis Ford Coppola says he has been set free.

Free at last to make movies — one a year, he hopes — with full financial and artistic control, taking advantage of Argentina's relatively low production costs and the creative inspiration he finds on the streets of its capital.

"After a while I realized that I was getting further and further away from what my original intentions had been," the 68-year-old filmmaker explains in an interview with The Associated Press. "So at this age I decided, 'Well, why don't I make the kinds of films I wanted to do when I was 18? I'll just do it later in life.'"

The five-time Oscar winner, best known for "The Godfather" trilogy about the Corleone mafia family, is preparing to shoot a film about a much different, but equally dysfunctional, Italian-immigrant clan.

"Tetro," for which Coppola wrote an original screenplay, follows two sons of a great but monstrously self-absorbed orchestra conductor in contemporary Argentina.

Much of the film will be shot in La Boca, a neighborhood marked by the legacy of poor Italian immigrants who arrived by the shiploads in the early 20th century. Researching his tale, Coppola discovered many parallels between Buenos Aires and the New York he grew up in.

"Italian families emigrated to Argentina and the United States, and very often brothers in the same family would go two different directions," Coppola explains, relaxing in the courtyard of his new home and studio, which comes complete with the steel barbecue grill no self-respecting Argentine would do without.

Coppola, who splits his time now between the San Francisco Bay area and Argentina, says he felt immediately at home in this most-European of South American capitals.

He has been photographed walking alone among the shops and markets in chic neighborhoods, a black beret pulled down over his graying hair.

"Buenos Aires is a big city like New York; it's full of life and it gave me a chance to put these characters in a slightly exotic setting where I would be free to work and pursue this more personal type of filmmaking."

Coppola has even discovered Argentina's biggest craze: attending soccer matches of the world-famous Boca Juniors team.

His stay hasn't all been pleasant — his studio was burglarized in September by thieves who stole computers and even his backup data system. Coppola made an unsuccessful public appeal for their return, but said his script for "Tetro" was never stolen, contrary to local press reports.

"They never stole the original script," he says. "They took the computers and the backup, but they only took photographs, only for the last year-and-a-half."

After a decade devoted to paying off creditors by focusing on less personal films, Coppola says he finally has the financial freedom to pursue his own projects with proceeds from his other businesses — including his California vineyard, an organic pasta business, and three luxury resorts in Belize and Guatemala.

And he continues to cast well known actors from outside the studio system.

Vincent Gallo of "Buffalo 66" and "The Brown Bunny" is the lead character in "Tetro," backed by Spanish actress Maribel Verdu of "Pan's Labyrinth" and Oscar winner Javier Bardem of "No Country For Old Men."

Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich, 18, will play a young man searching for the estranged older brother Tetro — a "tragic poet figure" who broke all family ties and moved in amid the Bohemian theater, dance and artistic community of Buenos Aires.

Coppola said he is not unlike millions of tourists who rediscovered budget Argentina after the 2002 economic crisis.

"People are coming here not unlike myself because the dollar is less compromised than even in Europe or Brazil," he said.

Coppola has made fortunes on gambles like "Apocalypse Now," and lost them on commercial flops like "One from the Heart." Now he says he can finance his own movies, like "Tetro," for under $15 million.

He has even gained a decent command of Spanish, breaking into basic sentences with a clear voice.

"I feel people who come to the U.S. should definitely speak English, but I love the idea of the United States becoming a bilingual country," he explains.

At the same time, he says U.S. English speakers could benefit from learning more about Latin America's rich literary traditions.

With his 2007 film "Youth Without Youth," Coppola returned to directing after a hiatus of several years. He calls "Tetro" the "second film of my new career, so I'm just learning."

His focus now is on making beautiful, enduring films.

"I'm not really trying to make a lot of money off the movie business," Coppola said. "I want personally for people to say, 'God, that was beautiful!'"

[cine]

"So at this age I decided, 'Well, why don't I make the kinds of films I wanted to do when I was 18? I'll just do it later in life.'"

this explains his current facebook profile picture:

[modage]

Vincent Gallo

on Delancey (and Forsyth) on my walk to work every day i see VINCENT GALLO's name is written in the cement on the sidewalk.  i wonder if he wrote it himself?  i should take a picture.

i just stumbled upon the CONTACT ME on his website and its hilarious...

This is a personal contact page for me, Vincent Gallo. As it is personal, I would like to say a few things about this contact address. Do not send me scripts, as I have never read a script in my life, including ones to films I've acted in, and ones that I've written and directed. I only accept legal pay or play offers from attorneys, please don't tell me about the film you're going to make one day. I'll be dead long before that happens, any day now maybe. Do not ask for signed photographs as I do not keep any photographs of myself and never had a head shot. Keep checking the merchandise page. Eventually, I will try to offer signed photos.

If you'd like to send a nude photo of yourself and you were BORN a female, please do so. I would be happy though with a simple photo of your face. It is nice to see the face of someone who writes me. I will only accept JPEG attachments. I will try my best to answer all email that is not offensive or unreasonable. But please be patient.

WARNING: To all bitter or jealous or unemployed or frustrated or mean or nasty or under-loved or under-paid or under-hung men and butchy girls. Think before you write to me. THINK HOW SMALL AND SILLY YOU APPEAR WHEN ANGRY JEALOUS AND BITTER--WRITING TO ME LIKE A SCORNED FAN.

http://www.vincentgallo.com/contact/

[MacGuffin]

Coppola in Argentina to Film `Tetro'

Francis Ford Coppola will start filming next week on "Tetro," about the struggles of two brothers from an Italian family in present-day Argentina.

Vincent Gallo and 18-year-old newcomer Alden Ehrenreich will play the brothers. Maribel Verdu ("Y tu mama tambien," "Pan's Labyrinth") will play Gallo's girlfriend. Javier Bardem has a small role in the movie.

Coppola said the first scenes will be shot in the Italian neighborhood of La Boca, a gritty Buenos Aires district of multihued tenement buildings where thousands of immigrants arrived at the turn of the last century.

The Oscar-winning writer-director brushed off the possibility that "Tetro" traces the story lines of his own Italian immigrant family in New York City.

"It's not autobiographical really, it's personal," he said. "It's a story about a family. It's a small film ... an independent kind of film."

Coppola, who directed classics such as "Apocalypse Now" and "The Godfather" trilogy, compared "Tetro," which is budgeted at about $15 million, to European movies of the 1950s and '60s.

The 68-year-old filmmaker said he views "Tetro" as an opportunity for continued personal exploration as a director.

"I want very much to learn how to make movies. That may sound funny because I've been doing it for 40 years, but the cinema is something that you never stop learning, and I want to make films in new ways," he said at a news conference Wednesday.

"I'm trying to have a new start with my career making more personal, smaller films," he said.

Coppola presented Gallo, Verdu, Ehrenreich and a handful of Argentine actors as "our little company."

"As an actor you have fantasies, and this is the fantasy come true," Ehrenreich said of working with Coppola.

Coppola remained humble.

"I never made films as a grand maestro," he said. "I always made films more as an imaginative child."

[MacGuffin]

Carmen Maura to replace Javier Bardem in 'Tetro'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK -- In what Francis Ford Coppola is calling a "sex change" operation, Carmen Maura is replacing fellow Spaniard Javier Bardem in the family drama "Tetro."

Coppola said his rewrite of the pivotal role came during rehearsals for the film's 11-week shoot, which began March 31 in Buenos Aires.

"One of the important roles in the script is a mentor and teacher to Tetro (Vincent Gallo), and I originally wrote it for a man," he said. "As I read and reread (the script), I felt that the interaction between the two characters would be far more intriguing if they were of the opposite sex."

The director often changes key elements of his script be¬fore and during filming, he said, but ac¬cording to another person involved in the deal, Bardem "became unavailable" for the project and is reading drafts of the script for his starring role in Rob Marshall's "Nine." The Weinstein Co.'s adaptation of the Broadway musical was delayed by the WGA strike and is expected to begin shooting in September.

Pedro Almodovar staple Maura ("Volver") recently joined around the time of rehearsals in Buenos Aires, which Bardem never attended. Although he had a supporting role and was only set to film for two weeks, the "No Country for Old Men" star was the highest profile name among the cast and the only Oscar nominee. (He went on to winning the award for best supporting actor in February.)

Maura will play a literary critic and mentor to Tetro, whose younger brother (Alden Ehrenreich) searches for him in Argentinia's capital city. Maribel Verdu also stars. Coppola's American Zoetrope is producing the $15 million production.

[MacGuffin]

Union claims 'Tetro' shut down
Coppola's production house denies any delays
Source: Hollywood Reporter

BUENOS AIRES – The Argentinean actors union is claiming that actors on director Francis Ford Coppola's "Tetro" have been working without a contract, and said they shut down the film's production here.

Coppola's spokeswoman, Kathleen Talbert, denied this, saying production on the film was proceeding as planned.

"There are no holds on shooting, no problem with actors. In fact, the majority of the Argentine actors have already wrapped the shooting," she wrote in an e-mail.

The Asociacion Argentina de Actores (Argentina Actors Association) claims that union members have been working without a contract since production started in late March and that Zoetrope Argentina -- Coppola's newly-formed local production house -- was given various opportunities to present the proper paperwork to avoid the work stoppage.

"At the moment, they are not filming because the contracts have [not] arrived to the union. On Tuesday, the union gave them 48 hours to present the documents and they didn't do that, so we took this action," AAA spokesman Daniel Valenzuela said.

Local press reports say that script changes and communication problems between the multi-national cast and crew have extended filming days beyond regularly scheduled hours, and that some of the Argentine actors are still not certain of their salary.

Argentina's strong production capabilities, competitive prices and European look have made it a popular destination for foreign film and commercial shoots in recent years.

"Tetro" has had a rocky road from the beginning. Thieves broke into the Palermo neighborhood office of Zoetrope Argentina in September and stole Coppola's computers and back-up systems. Oscar-winner Javier Bardem dropped out just before shooting began and his part was re-written as a female role for actress Carmen Maura.

Coppola's semi-autobiographical screenplay tells the tale of an artistic family in modern-day Argentina, and stars Vincent Gallo in the title role as well as Maribel Verdu, Alden Ehrenreich, Rodrigo de la Serna and Leticia Bredice.

The AAA said it plans to send inspectors to the set on Friday evening to ensure that filming does not take place.

[modage]

Alden Ehrenreich, a 19-year-old NYU freshman, played a cross-dressing punk in a movie he made for a bat mitzvah. It's what eventually got him the lead in Francis Ford Coppola's next film.
Source: NYMag

My mom wouldn't let me do child acting. But starting in sixth grade, my friends and I would make home movies. In one I ran around as a skinny little punk, trying on girls' clothes and eating dirt. We decided to show it at another friend's bat mitzvah. My mom was like, "I really don't know if you want to present yourself that way. It's not the best portrait, and there are a lot of people who will be watching this." To be honest, you go to a bat mitzvah in Los Angeles and you can count on at least a few industry people to be there. But it wasn't like we thought of that.

Well, Steven Spielberg was there. I got a call afterwards from these giggling girls from school who told me that he had really liked the movie. Pretty soon the DreamWorks people had gotten me an agent, and by now I've gone on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of auditions.

The Coppola audition was the craziest. He first had me read from Catcher in the Rye. Then we had screen tests at his Napa vineyard. Then I got a call to go to Argentina, where I had another four days of screen tests—improvs at cafés and "directing" a group of Argentine actors. I asked him a lot about Marlon Brando. "He was a very dignified man," he said. Period.

Next: Atlantic Yards, Inch by Inch

Tetro, Coppola's Argentine family drama starring Ehrenreich and Vincent Gallo, opens June 11.

[Bethie]

dammit! Why can't this happen to any of us? me, in particular