Francis Ford Coppola delivered one of the greatest pieces of art in The Godfather, the movie centered around Don Vito Corleone, head of a mafia family, passing over his powers to his son, Michael. The sequel was received equally well by the moviegoers in 1974, further cementing Coppola’s place among the most visionary filmmakers of all time.
However, the third movie, which starred his daughter, Sofia Coppola in a leading role, left critics indifferent. It also led to Coppola reworking The Godfather Part III years later and bringing a recut version, titled The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone to the fore. However, it seems his daughter isn’t the biggest fan of this concept.
Why Sofia Coppola Turned Down an Advice From The Godfather Director
Sofia Coppola, who played the role of Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III, didn’t enjoy the most glamorous of careers in front of the camera and took the director’s chair for The Virgin Suicides in 1999. The story about a group of guys’ obsession with the girls of a conservative family earned Coppola a lot of plaudits.
These days, she is attracting the headlines for brilliantly directing Priscilla, a biographical drama based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley.
Coppola sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about her movie and revealed that her father, who likes to revise his work, has encouraged her to do the same, but she has little interest in that approach. She said:
“My dad loves to recut his movies, and he’s always saying, ‘You can do that!’ I don’t have any desire to. I feel like they are what they are, even with their baby fat and awkwardness, that’s what I was thinking about at that time.”
It’s certainly a bold decision from Coppola to not take the advice of The Godfather director. She further insisted that she’s happy that she gets to make what she wants to make and expressed her satisfaction at how her movie Marie-Antoinette, which flopped at the box office, ended up amassing a passionate fan base over time.
Why Sofia Coppola Snubbed the Chance to Direct Robert Pattinson’s Movie
Akin to suggestions, irrespective of where they come from, Coppola is also very particular about picking projects.
The 52-year-old was offered the opportunity to direct Breaking Dawn, the final chapter of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart’s Twilight saga. The story was split into two films that hit the theaters in 2011 and 2012.
The talks for the movie only lasted one meeting, as Coppola found some elements in it too strange. She revealed to Rolling Stone:
“We had one meeting, and it never went anywhere. I thought the whole imprinting-werewolf thing was weird. The baby. Too weird! But part of the earlier ‘Twilight’ could be done in an interesting way. I thought it’d be fun to do a teen-vampire romance, but the last one gets really far out.”
Coppola also turned down The Little Mermaid, which she developed with the studio, after disagreeing over the budget required to bring the underwater world to life.
