American Zoetrope
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American Zoetrope is the name of the studio founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, named after a zoetrope Coppola was given in the late 1960s by the filmmaker and collector of early film devices, Mogens Skot-Hansen[1].
Founded in 1969, American Zoetrope was an early adopter of digital filmmaking, including some of the earliest uses of HDTV. The studio has produced not only the films of Coppola (Apocalypse Now, The Black Stallion, Bram Stoker's Dracula, etc.) but also George Lucas's pre-Star Wars films, THX 1138 and American Graffiti, as well as many others by such cutting-edge directors as Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, Wim Wenders, and Godfrey Reggio (Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi).
Four films produced by American Zoetrope are included in the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films. American Zoetrope-produced films have received fifteen Academy Awards and sixty-eight nominations. Lost in Translation (2002), written and directed by Sofia Coppola, won 2003's Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay.
"Zoetrope" is also the name by which Coppola's quarterly fiction magazine, Zoetrope All-Story, is often known.
In an interview with Harry Knowles for Ain't It Cool News published on May 8, 2007, Coppola stated that American Zoetrope is now owned entirely by his son and daughter, directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola.
American Zoetrope's latest production is a new film by Francis Ford Coppola, Youth Without Youth, starring Tim Roth, which opened in October 2007. The film was written, produced and directed by Coppola, marking his return to personal filmmaking. Coppola's next project, Tetro, will begin filming early 2008.
The company's headquarters is in the historic Sentinel Building in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. In the building lobby Coppola operates a popular small Italian café featuring Rubicon Estate wine and memorabilia from his films.
[edit] Selected filmography
- On the Road (directed by Walter Salles)
- Tetro (2009) (directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
- Youth Without Youth (2007) (directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
- The Good Shepherd (2006) (directed by Robert De Niro)
- Marie Antoinette (2006) (directed by Sofia Coppola)
- Kinsey (2004) (directed by Bill Condon)
- Lost in Translation (2003) (directed by Sofia Coppola)
- Jeepers Creepers II (2003) (directed by Victor Salva)
- Assassination Tango (2002) (directed by Robert Duvall)
- Pumpkin (2002) (directed by Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder)
- Jeepers Creepers (2001) (directed by Victor Salva)
- Sleepy Hollow (1999) (directed by Tim Burton)
- The Virgin Suicides (1999) (directed by Sofia Coppola)
- The Rainmaker (1997) (directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
- Buddy (1997) (directed by Caroline Thompson)
- The Odyssey (1997) (directed by Andrei Konchalovsky)
- Jack (1996) (directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) (directed by Kenneth Branagh)
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) (directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
- Apocalypse Now (1979) (directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
- THX 1138 (1971) (directed by George Lucas)
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Zoetrope All-Story the website of the fiction magazine.
- Zoetrope Magazine
