Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and film composer whose career spans more than sixty years. Coppola has directed twenty-three feature films to date.
His films The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now are often cited among the greatest films ever made. [1]
Coppola has, since 2000, issued new versions of several of his films, including Apocalypse Now: Redux (2001), The Outsiders: The Complete Novel (2005), The Cotton Club: Encore (2017), Apocalypse Now Final Cut (2019), and The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (2020), among others. [2]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1963 | Dementia 13 | Yes | Yes | No | |
1966 | You're a Big Boy Now | Yes | Yes | No | |
1968 | Finian's Rainbow | Yes | No | No | |
1969 | The Rain People | Yes | Yes | No | |
1972 | The Godfather | Yes | Yes | No | Co-writer with Mario Puzo |
1974 | The Conversation | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
The Godfather Part II | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-writer with Mario Puzo | |
1979 | Apocalypse Now | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-writer with John Milius and Michael Herr; also composer with Carmine Coppola; Cameo: TV News Director |
1982 | One from the Heart | Yes | Yes | No | Co-writer with Armyan Bernstein |
1983 | The Outsiders | Yes | No | No | |
Rumble Fish | Yes | Yes | Executive | Co-writer with S. E. Hinton | |
1984 | The Cotton Club | Yes | Yes | No | Co-writer with William Kennedy |
1986 | Captain EO | Yes | Yes | No | Short film; co-written with George Lucas and Rusty Lemorande |
Peggy Sue Got Married | Yes | No | No | ||
1987 | Gardens of Stone | Yes | No | Yes | |
1988 | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | Yes | No | No | |
1989 | New York Stories | Yes | Yes | No | Segment: "Life Without Zoë"; co-writer with Sofia Coppola |
1990 | The Godfather Part III | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-writer with Mario Puzo |
1992 | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Yes | No | Yes | |
1996 | Jack | Yes | No | Yes | |
1997 | The Rainmaker | Yes | Yes | No | |
2007 | Youth Without Youth | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2009 | Tetro | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2011 | Twixt | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2024 | Megalopolis | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Writer only
Year | Title | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1966 | Is Paris Burning? | René Clément | Co-writer with Gore Vidal, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost and Claude Brulé |
This Property Is Condemned | Sydney Pollack | Co-writer with Fred Coe and Edith Sommer | |
1970 | Patton | Frank McCarthy | Co-writer with Edmund H. North |
1974 | The Great Gatsby | Jack Clayton | |
Producer only
Year | Title | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1973 | American Graffiti | George Lucas | |
1994 | Don Juan DeMarco | Jeremy Leven | Co-produced with Fred Fuchs and Patrick Palmer |
The Junky's Christmas | Nick Donkin | Short film [3] | |
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein | Kenneth Branagh | Co-produced with James V. Hart and John Veitch | |
1999 | The Florentine | Nick Stagliano | Co-produced with Nick Stagliano and Steven Weisman |
The Virgin Suicides | Sofia Coppola | Co-produced with Julie Costanzo, Chris Hanley and Dan Halsted | |
Executive producer only
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1952 | The Magic Voyage of Sinbad | Screen adaptation and English-language re-editing of Sadko |
1959 | Battle Beyond the Sun | Shot new footage and re-edited for American release 1962 of Mikhail Karyukov and Aleksandr Kozyr Nebo Zovyot, credited as Thomas Colchart, associate producer |
1962 | The Bellboy and the Playgirls | Shot and wrote new footage for American release of Fritz Umgelter's film |
The Premature Burial | 2nd unit director | |
Tonight for Sure | Re-edit with new footage of Wide Open Spaces | |
Tower of London | Assistant director | |
1963 | The Haunted Palace | |
The Young Racers | 2nd unit director | |
The Terror | Associate producer, replaced Roger Corman as director for 11 days [4] | |
1968 | The Wild Racers | 2nd unit director |
1982 | Hammett |
At the beginning of his career, Coppola assisted on a number of Roger Corman-directed films. [5] Throughout his career, Coppola has repeatedly cast certain actors for his film projects. Singer-songwriter Tom Waits has appeared in six of his films, Robert Duvall and Laurence Fishburne have both appeared in five, and James Caan, Diane Lane, Frederic Forrest and Glenn Withrow have all appeared in four. Coppola worked with production designer Dean Tavoularis on several films beginning with The Godfather through Jack . [6]
Year | Title | Director | Executive Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Jerry Brown: The Shape of Things to Come | Yes | Yes | Live broadcast |
1986 | Saturday Night Live | Yes | No | Episode: "George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola/Philip Glass" |
1987 | Faerie Tale Theatre | Yes | Yes | Episode: "Rip Van Winkle" |
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1990 | The Outsiders | 13 episodes Adaptation of 1983 film |
1995 | Tecumseh: The Last Warrior | TV movie |
1996 | Dark Angel | |
1997 | Survival on the Mountain | |
The Odyssey | Miniseries | |
1998 | Outrage | TV movie |
Moby Dick | Miniseries | |
1998–2001 | First Wave | 65 episodes |
2000 | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | TV movie |
2003 | Platinum | 6 episodes |
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1993 | The Junky's Christmas | TV movie |
1995 | White Dwarf | |
Kidnapped |
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood film movement and is widely considered one of the greatest directors of all time. Coppola is the recipient of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or, and a BAFTA Award.
The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American epic crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, loosely based on the 1969 novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Coppola. It is both a sequel and a prequel to the 1972 film The Godfather, presenting parallel dramas: one picks up the 1958 story of Michael Corleone, the new Don of the Corleone family, protecting the family business in the aftermath of an attempt on his life; the other covers the journey of his father, Vito Corleone, from his Sicilian childhood to the founding of his family enterprise in New York City. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Morgana King, John Cazale, Marianna Hill and Lee Strasberg.
Eleanor Jessie Coppola was an American documentary film director, screenwriter, and artist. She was married to director Francis Ford Coppola from 1963 until her death. She was best-known for her 1991 documentary film Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse as well as other documentaries chronicling the films of her husband and children.
Walter Scott Murch is an American film editor, director, writer and sound designer. His work includes THX 1138, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I, II, and III, American Graffiti, The Conversation, Ghost and The English Patient, with three Academy Award wins.
Carmine Valentino Coppola was an American composer, flautist, pianist, and songwriter who contributed original music to the films The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders, The Black Stallion, and The Godfather Part III. He is the father of film director Francis Ford Coppola. In the course of his career, he won both the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, with BAFTA Award for Best Film Music and Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media nominations.
Apocalypse Now Redux is a 2001 American extended version of Francis Ford Coppola's epic 1979 war film Apocalypse Now. Coppola, along with editor and longtime collaborator Walter Murch, added 49 minutes of material that had been removed from the initial theatrical release. It is a significant re-edit of the original version.
Jack Hill is an American film director in the exploitation film genre. Several of Hill's later films have been characterized as feminist works.
One from the Heart is a 1982 American musical romantic drama film co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski, Lainie Kazan, and Harry Dean Stanton. Set entirely in Las Vegas and made independently by Coppola's own Zoetrope Studios, the film was a critical and commercial failure, though it has since received a positive critical reappraisal.
Dementia 13, known in the United Kingdom as The Haunted and the Hunted, is a 1963 independently made black-and-white horror-thriller film produced by Roger Corman, and written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars William Campbell and Luana Anders with Bart Patton, Mary Mitchell, and Patrick Magee. It was released in the United States by American International Pictures during the fall of 1963 as the bottom half of a double feature with Corman's X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes.
Dean Tavoularis is an American motion picture production designer whose work appeared in numerous box office hits such as The Godfather films, Apocalypse Now, The Brink's Job, One from the Heart, and Bonnie and Clyde.
The Bellboy and the Playgirls is a 1962 American film by Francis Ford Coppola and Jack Hill. The film is a re-edited version of a West German film of 1958 originally titled Mit Eva fing die Sünde an [Sin Began with Eve], directed by Fritz Umgelter with Coppola and Hill shooting nudity inserted into the film for an American release.
Gian-Carlo Coppola was an American film producer and actor. He was the oldest child of set decorator/artist Eleanor Coppola and film director Francis Ford Coppola, and brother to screenwriter/producer Roman Coppola and director Sofia Coppola.
Frederick Ried Roos was an American film producer and casting director. He was best known for his contributions to the New Hollywood movement, particularly through his collaborations with director Francis Ford Coppola. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture for The Godfather: Part II (1974), with a second nomination for Apocalypse Now (1979).
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely inspired by the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Willard, who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and Harrison Ford.
Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, portrayed by Marlon Brando, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now. Colonel Kurtz is based on the character of a nineteenth-century ivory trader, also called Kurtz, from the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
Gray Frederickson was an American film producer.
The Offer is an American biographical drama television miniseries created by Michael Tolkin and developed by Tolkin and Nikki Toscano for Paramount+. The series follows the development and production of Francis Ford Coppola's landmark gangster film The Godfather (1972) for Paramount Pictures. Miles Teller, Matthew Goode, Giovanni Ribisi, Colin Hanks, Dan Fogler, Juno Temple, and Burn Gorman all star. It premiered on April 28, 2022, and ran 10 episodes through June 16.
Megalopolis is a 2024 American epic science fiction drama film written, directed, and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The film stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D. B. Sweeney, and Dustin Hoffman. Set in an alternate, 21st-century New York City, it follows visionary architect Cesar Catilina (Driver) as he clashes with the corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Esposito), who opposes Catilina's plans to revitalize New Rome by building the futuristic utopia "Megalopolis". The film heavily references Roman history, particularly the Catilinarian conspiracy of 63 BC and the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
The following is a list of unproduced Francis Ford Coppola projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Francis Ford Coppola has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these productions fell in development hell or were cancelled.