translated from Spanish: Francis Ford Coppola is 80 years old

the director, producer and screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola meets this Sunday April 7 80 years. Born in Detroit in 1939, the son of immigrant Neapolitan and visionary of the film industry, the legendary filmmaker responsible for titles such as ‘The Godfather’, ‘Apocalypse Now’ or ‘Drácula’ will return to the Chair of management to bring forward one of their “most desired projects: ‘megalopolis’.” It will be extraordinary, a very large production, which will have a widespread distribution. In these years I have been trying different styles and types of films, culminating in what I believe is my own voice and inspiration”, he said recently in an interview with Deadline on which will be returning to cinema as a director. The filmmaker’s Italian roots began his career with small collaborations in horror movies along with Roger Corman, as well as making their first steps as director. One of his first successes on the big screen as a scriptwriter before directing the most famous titles in his career, was the film ‘Patton’ (1970). He was awarded an Oscar for best screenplay, one of the seven statuettes that got the project, and aroused the interest of Paramount by Coppola.En 1972, premiered ‘The Godfather’, adaptation of the novel by Mario Puzo and the first installment of the acclaimed trilogy starring by the Corleone family, and specifically its Patriarch, Don Vito Corleone, first played by Marlon Brando and later by Robert De Niro. In ‘The Godfather II’ (1974) and the Godfather III (1990), the story centers focus on Michael (a Al Pacino), son and successor of Vito at the head of the family business. Paramount didn’t at the beginning that Marlon Brando, an actor as talented as problematic, was in the title role of the Corleone Patriarch. Ford Coppola defended it tooth and nail, and their efforts almost cost him then his work as head of a trilogy that is already history of cinema, and which won three Oscars in 1972: best film, best adapted screenplay and best actor for Brando. In 1975, the second installment, so appreciated by critics and audiences as the first film, joined six other awards. Another fundamental titles in his filmography is ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979), an adaptation of the book ‘Heart of darkness’ written by Joseph Conrad and located in the heart of the then mysterious Cambodia and Viet Nam war. Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen) of the U.S. forces, receive the custom of killing an official deserter in the heart of Cambodia, called Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Erected as a demigod in the middle of the jungle, with its very particular and dedicated group of followers, some already tried the same mission that Willard without success. The film won two awards in 1979 Oscar best sound and picture, as well as four Golden Globes best film, best direction, best actor starring Robert Duvall and best soundtrack. A big win for a filming not exempt of complications and that director invested their savings to achieve the minimum budget to create a film at the height of their expectations. All the hard experience was filmed in the documentary ‘Hearts in darkness’, directed by his spouse Eleanor Coppola.Coppola also has been one of the directors that has made their particular interpretation of ‘Drácula’ classic of the literature of terror written by Bram Stoker, a film starring Gary Oldman. The film, a very romantic vision of the vampire myth that won three Oscars and which also featured in the cast with Anthony Hopkings, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves ‘The conversation’ (1974), ‘Hunch’ (1981), ‘Rebels’ (1983), ‘The law of the street’ (1983), ‘Cotton Club’ (1984), ‘Tucker, a man and his dream (1988) or ‘Legitimate defence’, John Grisham ‘ (1997), are other titles that stand out in a filmography that ground to a halt in 2011 with the premiere of the controversial ‘Twixt’ and which is now reactivated with ‘Megalopolis’. In addition, the director also works on Assembly of ‘ Apocalypse Now: Final Cut’ for its screening at the Tribeca Festival. A combination of the classic shot in 1979 and its extended version, ‘Apocalypse Now Redux’.



Original source in Spanish

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