Sofia Coppola aired her frustration following the cancelation of her upcoming adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country. The series was meant to run for five episodes on Apple TV and was supposed to feature Black Widow actress Florence Pugh in the lead.
The famed director negotiated with the network in 2020, but by the end of 2021, the project was scrapped. It seems like money was the issue after Coppola demanded five times the budget of her 2006 film Marie Antoinette, which cost $45 million to make.
Sofia Coppola Opens Up About Scrapped Apple TV Series
In her interview with New Yorker magazine, filmmaker Sofia Coppola shed the truth about her canceled series with Florence Pugh. The actress was supposed to portray Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl who tries her luck in New York City.
“Apple just pulled out. They pulled our funding. It’s a real drag. I thought they had endless resources.”
She noted that the executives at Apple TV, who she said were mostly dudes, did not understand the importance of having an unlikable female character. Author Edith Wharton was known for her works on feminist novels, thus the representation of some of her famous book characters sometimes did not align with society’s standards.
“They didn’t get the character of Undine. She’s so ‘unlikable.’ But so is Tony Soprano! It was like a relationship that you know you probably should’ve gotten out of a while ago.”
Coppola echoed the same sentiment in her conversation with New York Times, adding that s*xism was the root cause of why Apple TV decided to reject her project. She also claimed that the concept of an unlikable woman was not their cup of tea.
“That’s what I’m saying about who’s in charge. The people in charge of giving money are usually straight men, still. There’s always people in lower levels who are like myself, but then the bosses have a certain sensibility. If it’s so hard for me to get financing as an established person, I worry about younger women starting out. It’s surprising that it’s still a struggle.”
The Lost in Translation director lamented how the issue of discrimination against female directors is still rampant to this day, and she feels sorry for the girls who are aspiring to become filmmakers someday.
Sofia Coppola Accuses Big Studios Of Gender Bias
Sofia Coppola is very much aware of the industry’s prejudices when it comes to gender. As one of the established female filmmakers of this generation, she still finds it difficult to seal deals. She told The Guardian:
“When it comes to bigger-budget studio movies, there’s definitely a bias – it’s harder for them to hire a woman.”
When she was tapped to helm a live-action Disney film in 2015, she backed out for reasons of creative differences. The project would have been a different stroke in her portfolio, but with such a massive fund, it would also mean Coppola had to bow down to the higher-ups.
“My experience was that when there’s a big budget, there’s less creative freedom. There’s so many cooks in the kitchen because it’s more about business than art. And I was excited because I thought, oh, you know, I could try to change this or that, and it wasn’t that easy.”
Lots of great projects end up getting shelved for reasons that women filmmakers still get the short end of the stick. Hopefully, Coppola’s upcoming series adaptation will find a new home.
