francis ford coppola began in low-budget pictures: his first feature, dementia 13 (1963), was produced for roger corman and shot in ireland in nine days. he co-wrote patton (1970) with edmund h. north, and the two shared the academy award for best original screenplay.
with george lucas he founded american zoetrope, which opened on december 12, 1969, in a warehouse on folsom street in san francisco. zoetrope produced lucas's thx 1138 (1971) and american graffiti (1973), the latter produced by coppola.
the godfather (1972) followed: coppola co-wrote the screenplay with mario puzo from puzo's 1969 novel, with gordon willis as cinematographer, for paramount. it won best picture, and puzo and coppola took the adapted-screenplay oscar. the conversation (1974), written and directed by coppola and starring gene hackman, won the palme d'or at cannes, and the godfather part ii (1974), again shot by gordon willis, won six academy awards including best picture and best director.
apocalypse now (1979) was adapted loosely from joseph conrad's heart of darkness and shot in the philippines; vittorio storaro won the cinematography oscar, and the film shared the palme d'or. one from the heart (1982), a musical made by zoetrope studios with storaro and a tom waits score, cost about $26 million and returned roughly $637,000 in the united states, leaving the company in financial trouble; zoetrope's hollywood studio was sold in 1984.
later work includes the outsiders and rumble fish (both 1983, from s. e. hinton novels), tucker: the man and his dream (1988, shot by storaro) and bram stoker's dracula (1992), which won academy awards for costume design, makeup and sound editing.
related profiles; American New Wave, Roger Corman, John Cassavetes
sources; wikipedia: francis ford coppola, wikipedia: american zoetrope, wikipedia: the godfather, wikipedia: apocalypse now, wikipedia: one from the heart
hope this page was useful;
the guy who maintains these pages
makes films that can be seen on youtube
and software that can be used by artists
if you want to help the operation, support here