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Coppola vs. Pacino, De Niro and Nicholson

Director Francis Ford Coppola has unaccountably castigated three of Hollywood's top stars, whom he has directed in the past, accusing Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson of "living off the fat of the land" and doing little that is challenging or ambitious. In an interview with GQ magazine, Coppola noted that "Pacino is very rich, maybe because he never spends any money ... [De Niro] created an empire and is wealthy and powerful ... [Nicholson] is always wired in with the big guys and the big bosses of the studios." Coppola added, "You know, even in those days after The Godfather, I didn't feel that those actors were ready to say, 'Let's do something else really ambitious." Commenting on Coppola's remarks, the New York Daily News's "Rush and Molloy" column observed, "Some might ask Coppola how he has challenged himself lately. He admits he has been focused on his vineyard and on his resorts in Belize and Guatemala." And L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke remarked, "Is there anything more hypocritical than a judgmental Francis Ford Coppola?"

It also saddens me that I spent many hours of time and energy talking to the folks at Criterion who are dying to put it out. I even flew myself to Denver to have lunch with Francis to talk him into it. That was three years ago. He said he'd get back to me but I guess he's been to busy. So here we are. I found out about it last night and it's coming out on Paramount DVD. I only hope that it has it's 1.33 aspect ration. A lot of theaters mistakenly projected it at 1.85 and cut off some of the titles and images. Maybe someday Criterion will be able to get it and I'll be able to do the commentary and tell all these hilarious stories about my encounter with Denis Jacob who stole the negative when Francis was in post.

jaredsap wrote:Hickenlooper posted this on Hollywood Elsewhere, along with a bunch of other stuff:

Having just viewed the packaging of my film, I have to say I am really pissed off. And I am not pissed off at Paramount. I spoke to Home Video guy Michael Harkin today and he told me Paramount had nothing to do with the packaging or mastering of the DVD. It was ALL delivered by Zoetrope. So this is all Francis' doing and he never even bothered to return my emails or phone calls. The last one in May reminding him about the Criterion offer. And now I have just seen the packaging and I am really disappointed. By writing at the bottom of the package "Eleanor Coppola's Follow-Up Documentary" there is an implication that HEARTS was Eleanor Coppola's documentary, period. Which kind of bomastically implies that Fax Bahr and I were little more than ghost writer/directors. The truth is Eleanor Coppola was NOT INVOLVED AT ALL IN THE MAKING OF "HEARTS OF DARKNESS." She saw the film once we had FINISHED IT and before we showed it to Francis. I honestly don't think she had one comment. Well yes she did. She asked us to remove Dennis Hopper's remark that Francis was supplying him with cocaine on a daily basis. She also asked us to remove Grey Fredrickson's remark that Francis was almost arrested when military police showed up because the real dead bodies being used on the Kurz compaound were actually stolen from a local morgue. That was it. There was absolutely no creative input from Eleanor into the making of HEARTS other than the wonderful RAW FOOTAGE she shot in 1976. I am assuming Fax Bahr's and my name are still in the credit block but it wouldn't suprise me, by the way this whole thing has been handled so arrogantly by Francis, if it wasn't. We did happen to win Emmys for directing and writing. I gotta tell you guys, I worship Francis and his general support and enthusiasm for creative expression and filmmaker's independence -- especially in light of his doing YOUNG YOUTHFUL YOUTH. I just find it a tad bit hypocritical that he would so blatantly disregard the two principal creative forces behind HEARTS OF DARKNESS.

malcolm1980 wrote:They should have a box-set which includes this with Apocalypse Now.

HerrSchreck wrote:He fucking hated them at the time, stated that when deleting them during the original cut... and only started to "like" them again when it became clear that he could make a shitload of money revisiting the film and going out again with it.

HerrSchreck wrote:...and the satisfaction of knowing one has created a couple of top ten of all time masterpieces for the ages, and that ones name and work will be studied forever?

Magic Hate Ball wrote:INT. COPPOLA DINING ROOM (1985) ...

Romat wrote:I thought the story was, he liked them but realized the plantation scene and the helicopter monsoon scenes just slowed things down too much, and went too far off "the mission". At the time, Apocalypse was getting a lot of bad press leading up to it's release. Coppola was afraid everyone would hate it, it would tank etc. So he cut out the scenes to make it more "commercial". Of course he'd have to rationalize that at the time, saying the cut scenes weren't needed. 20 years later, it was already a known and respected film, and he wasn't worried about things being too long, or too weird. So he added them back in for the Redux.