Exclusive: Sofia Coppola Says Roman Coppola Is Working On A New Feature-Length Film

by Leah Zak
December 20, 2010 7:37 AM
5 Comments

Project Is Under Wraps, But It'll Be His First Feature Since 2001

Filmmaker Roman Coppola hasn't made a film since 2001, the weird and wonderful "CQ," his paean to the groovy films of the '60s, perhaps completely influenced by the cheesy/awesome super-thief Mario Bava action-heist film, "Danger: Diabolik." Yes, "CQ" is different. It's a film within a film, and the story of a young director (Jeremy Davies) who moves to Paris to make sci-fi films, but it has similar sensibilities with its purposeful cornball, period-piece effects and it's excellent psychedelic go-go score by the French band Mellow. It's an incredibly underrated film -- Jason Schwartzman and Giancarlo Giannini play sleazy, Italian film directors and producers and they steal every scene with delicious aplomb -- and one you should watch, even if it was routinely ignored at the time.

We've been near desperate for Coppola to take on a new film, but the filmmaker has been keeping busy in recent years, co-writing and producing "The Darjeeling Limited," producing his sister Sofia's latest film "Somewhere," directing music videos -- for Phoenix, The Strokes (7 videos in total), Ima Robot, Phantom Planet -- and shooting second unit on films for friends and family like "The Life Aquatic," "Tetro," "Lost In Translation" and "Youth Without Youth."

We spoke to Sofia Coppola during press for "Somewhere," and while she was tight lipped about the project, she did tell us that Roman is working on something new.

"He’s working on something new," Sofia told Playlist scribe Drew Taylor last week. Something he's writing and directing we asked? "Yeah, he’s working on a script that he put together," she said.

When we asked for more details, Sofia shied away saying, "You can ask Roman yourself and he might tell you." (emails to Roman's reps and his Director's Bureau agency were not returned). When we told her that we'd be looking for another feature from Roman, the director seemed genuinely pleased that journos out there were rooting for him. "Thank you, I’ll tell him that."

"It was great to have my big brother helping me on 'Somewhere,'" she said. "I mean since we were kids he would help me do things and so it felt like an extension of that, and just shooting in LA, he has a company there in Hollywood and put together the crew, and he really protected the way I wanted to make the film with a really small crew and not a lot of… shoots can get out of control, too big and lots of equipment, he helped keep it focused on the basics that we were trying to center around."

More: Films, Somewhere, Roman Coppola

5 Comments

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modage | December 21, 2010 12:31 AMReply

Loved CQ. Rewatched it this year and it totally held up. I've always been surprised it didn't develop a larger cult following.
BradZuhl | December 20, 2010 9:20 AMReply

It would be cool if it was something he worked on with Wes Anderson and/or Noah Baumbach.
Peter Bjorn and Juan | December 20, 2010 9:20 AMReply

I'm so excited!
rodie | December 20, 2010 9:09 AMReply

Sweet! CQ was an intriguing, funny, touching, and beautiful-looking debut. I can't wait to see what Roman comes up with next.
Nardles | December 20, 2010 7:56 AMReply

"We’ve been near desperate for Coppola to take on a new film"

Seek help.