United Artists eyes Francis Ford Coppola’s First Movie in 10 Years
Jeeeez, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner are on a roll. I bet Paramount and Redstone are regretting that separation now. The new United Artists are in talks to acquire Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in ten years.
Coppola adapted, produced and directed Youth Without Youth based on the 1976 novel by Romanian-born religious historian Mircea Eliade. Inspired by his daughter Sofia, Francis shot the $5 million low budget film last winter in Romania. The film stars Tim Roth as a 70-year-old who is struck by lightning and suddenly gets younger and more brilliant. The film co-stars Alexandra Maria Lara and Bruno Ganz, and Matt Damon makes a cameo appearance.
According to Variety, the film was shown to distributors over the weekend where it was met with a mixed response. Coppola screened the film in late February for his Bay Area, which includes Carroll Ballard and George Lucas. Francis, why wasn’t I invited?
Coppola’s last time behind the camera was 1997’s Rainmaker which also starred Damon.
Diane Lane Biography
A stage veteran before she made her first films as a teenager, Diane Lane landed on the cover of TIME magazine in a 1979 profile of rising child stars. Few of those featured, however, were as lucky as Lane in making the transition to adult roles, and while her career has had the requisite peaks and valleys, she has continued to land challenging and diverse roles ranging from a frontier prostitute in the acclaimed miniseries “Lonesome Dove” (CBS, 1989) to sexually awakening Jewish housewife of “A Walk on the Moon” (1999) to her Oscar-nominated turn as a straying wife in the provocative “Unfaithful” (2002) .
The only daughter of parents who split within weeks of her birth, the petite blonde Lane was raised by her father in NYC. By the age of six, she had begun her showbiz career in earnest with a role in “Medea” staged by the famed LaMaMa theater company. Throughout the remainder of the 1970s, Lane amassed numerous stage credits, including a world tour with LaMaMa and in various productions at the New York Shakespeare Festival (most notably Elizabeth Swados’ “Runaways”). While she was deemed inappropriate model material, the poised, attractive teenager quickly made the transition to films. Her breakthrough role came in “A Little Romance” (1979), as a precocious American girl who experiences first love with an equally gifted French boy, abetted by an eccentric Englishman. That she shared screen time with Laurence Olivier and proved a strong and engaging presence helped propel her career and made her the “It girl” of the moment.
Lane capitalized on her growing fame with TV-movies (e.g., “Miss All-American”, CBS 1982) and the femme lead opposite Matt Dillon in a pair of films adapted from S E Hinton novels, “The Outsiders” and Rumble Fish” (both 1983), both directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The helmer has admitted to being infatuated with the starlet which is a possible explanation for his hiring her to co-star with Richard Gere in the ill-fated “The Cotton Club” (1984). A sprawling would-be epic, the movie suffered greatly from the lack of chemistry between Gere and Lane (although she looked fabulous in the period clothing) as well as from her miscasting–at 18, she was clearly too young to play a world-weary gangster’s moll who tempts a musician into an affair. It didn’t help her career, either, when she declined the part of the mermaid in “Splash” in favor of portraying a rock star diva in Walter Hill’s muddled musical “Streets of Fire” (also 1984).
After a hiatus to regroup, Lane attempted to forge a screen persona but the fickleness of Tinseltown reduced her to appearing in drivel like “Lady Beware” (1987), She did have a moderately good turn as a stripper opposite Matt Dillon in the noirish “The Big Town” (also 1987), but few saw the flick in its theatrical release. One of her best 80s roles came on the small screen as the prostitute who accompanies a group of men on a cattle drive in the award-winning adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s novel “Lonesome Dove”.
Despite her fine work and an Emmy nomination, good follow-up roles failed to materialize in the early 90s. Lane co-starred as the daughter of a man who may have been a Nazi sympathizer in the 1990 HBO drama “Descending Angel” and made the most of her limited screen time as Paulette Goddard in Richard Attenborough’s reverent biopic “Chaplin” (1992). Once again television provided a pair of fine roles: as the young version of the titular “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” (CBS, 1994) and as Stella to Alec Baldwin’s Stanley Kowalski in a remake of “A Streetcar Named Desire” (CBS, 1995). In between, the actress attempted to raise her international stock by hitching on to Sylvester Stallone’s renown, but the resulting film, “Judge Dredd” (1995) was a dismal mess. A reteaming with director Walter Hill as a luminous woman from the past of “Wild Bill” (also 1995) showcased her gifts but that film proved a box-office disappointment as well. Lane slowly rebounded as the mother of a boy with a rare genetic disease that aged him rapidly (and turned him into Robin Williams!) in “Jack”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and by playing a competent Secret Service agent in the thriller “Murder at 1600″ (1997).
The 1969-set indie “A Walk on the Moon” (1999), Tony Goldwyn’s directorial debut, however, allowed her to fully realize her screen potential. As a vaguely unhappy Jewish wife and mother who embarks on an affair, Lane earned some of the best reviews of her career and rejuvenated her standing in Hollywood. She subsequently began the millennium co-starring opposite Bill Pullman in the TV remake of “The Virginian” (TNT, 2000) and portrayed Mark Wahlberg’s land-bound girlfriend in “The Perfect Storm” (2000). Even as audiences were growing ever aware that her acting abilities were equal to her enduring beauty, she still found herself cast in relatively minor roles in films of varying quality, from the terrific such as “My Dog Skip” (2000) to the terrible, like the thriller “The Glass House” (2001).
Finally, in 2002 Lane was cast in a role that perfectly showcased her remarkable talents when she took the lead in “Unfaithful,” director Adrian Lyne’s psychological and often erotic look at a mature woman who has no reason to upset her happy home life but nevertheless embarks on a torrid affair with a young lover that ultimately results in tragedy. Lane’s sensual, natural and conflicted performance–better, actually, than the movie itself–won her heaps of accolades, including an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, and marked a new high point in her career.
At last established as a bankable leading lady, Lane’s follow-up was the lighter-weight romantic comedy “Under the Tuscan Sun” (2003), based on the popular book by author Frances Mayes, in which Lane played a 35-year-old San Francisco writer who makes an impulsive home purchase in Tuscany and discovers romance as she renovates her dilapidated new house.
- Born:
on 01/22/1965 in New York, New York - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Daughter: Eleanor Jasmine Lambert. born on September 5, 1993; father, Christopher Lambert
- Father: Burt Lane. divorced from Lane’s mother on February 4, 1965; had custody of Lane and served as her manager; died on February 22, 2002 at age 71
- Mother: Colleen Farrington. was a Playboy playmate in 1957; divorced from Lane’s father on February 4, 1965; relocated to Florida; Lane reportedly had a stormy adolescent relationship with her mother
Significant Others
- Husband: Christopher Lambert. born in 1957; met in 1984; married in 1988; divorced in 1994
- Companion: Danny Cannon. British; born in 1968; met while filming “Judge Dredd” (1995); together from c. 1994 to c. 1996;
- Companion: Jon Bon Jovi. briefly dated in the 1980s
- Companion: Josh Brolin. dating as of January 2002
- Companion: Rick Kolster. together from c. 1980 to c. 1983
Education
- University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Milestones
- — Cast as a massage therapist opposite Donald Sutherland in “Fierce People” directed by Griffin Dunne (lensed 2004)
- 1965 Parents divorced when she was 13 days old; father regained custody
- 1971 Appeared in stage productions with La Mama and the Public Theater between the ages of six and thirteen, most notably in the Tony-nominated stage musical “Runaways” (1977-1978)
- 1971 Professional acting debut at age six in the La Mama production of “Medea”, directed by Andrei Serban
- 1979 Appeared on the cover of Time magazine (August 13 issue)
- 1979 Feature acting debut as a precocious American child living in Paris in “A Little Romance”
- 1980 Was hit in the eye with a tennis ball, resulting in a permanently dilated pupil
- 1981 Network TV-movie debut, “Child Bride of Short Creek” (NBC)
- 1982 Had title role as a beauty contest winner in “Miss All-American” (CBS)
- 1983 Cast by Francis Ford Coppola in “The Outsiders” and “Rumble Fish”; first screen collaborations with Matt Dillon
- 1984 Reportedly turned down the role of the mermaid in “Splash” to star as rock singer Ellen Aim in “Streets of Fire”, helmed by Walter Hill
- 1984 Reteamed with Coppola as the female lead in “The Cotton Club”
- 1987 Reteamed with Dillon in “The Big Town”
- 1988 First onscreen pairing with Christopher Lambert, “Love Dream”
- 1989 Earned an Emmy Award nomination for her starring turn as prositute Lorena Wood in the popular CBS miniseries “Lonesome Dove”
- 1990 Portrayed a woman whose father may have had ties to the Nazis in the HBO drama “Descending Angel”
- 1992 Portrayed Paulette Goddard in Richard Attenborough’s biopic “Chaplin”
- 1992 Reteamed with then-husband Lambert in “Knight Moves”
- 1994 Starred as the youthful incarnation of the title character in the CBS miniseries “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All”
- 1995 Cast as Stella Kowalski opposite Alec Baldwin’s Stanley and Jessica Lange’s Blanche in the CBS remake of “A Streetcar Named Desire”
- 1995 Co-starred with Sylvester Stallone in the futuristic “Judge Dredd”
- 1995 Reteamed with director Walter Hill for the revisionist Western “Wild Bill”
- 1996 Played the mother of a ten-year-old suffering from a rare genetic disorder that makes him age in “Jack”, helmed by Coppola and starring Robin Williams
- 1997 Co-starred as a competent Secret Service agent in “Murder at 1600″
- 1998 Appeared opposite Gena Rowlands in the CBS adaptation of the Off-Broadway play “Grace & Glorie”
- 1999 Had one of her best adult feature roles as a cheating wife in “A Walk on the Moon”
- 2000 Played Mark Wahlberg’s girlfriend in “The Perfect Storm”
- 2000 Starred opposite Bill Pullman in the small screen remake of “The Virginia”, directed by Pullman
- 2001 Co-starred in the thriller “The Glass House” as the guardian of a wealthy teen
- 2002 Reteamed on screen with Richard Gere in “Unfaithful”; received nominations for a Golden Globe, a SAG and an Oscar for her leading role performance
- 2003 Starred in the romantic drama feature “Under the Tuscan Sun”; earned a golden globe nomination for best actress in a musical or comedy
- 2003 Sued a movie production company for about $2.7 million, alleging it failed to finance a film she was slated to star in or sign up Bruce Willis as her co-star.
- 2005 Starred in “Must Love Dogs” as a 40-something preschool teacher and divorcee who runs through various dating ploys to find her future husband
- Raised in NYC, primarily living in residential hotels
- Reportedly turned down the lead in “”Pretty Baby” (1978)
- Returned to the stage to play Olivia in Andrei Serban’s staging of “Twelfth Night” at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nastassja Kinski Biography
This strikingly attractive lead, with pouty lips and a slightly haughty manner, is best known for her performance in the title role in Roman Polanski’s sumptuous “Tess” (1979) as well as for her screen collaborations with Wim Wenders: a silent role in “Falsche Bewegung/Wrong Move” (1975); the estranged wife of Harry Dean Stanton (her most affecting performance to date) in “Paris, Texas” (1984); and an angelic presence in “Faraway, So Close” (1993).
The daughter of actor Klaus Kinski (with whom she had little contact after the age of 10) and sister of actress Pola Kinski, Nastassja (billed as Nastassia in the USA in the early 80s) was a teenager when she met and fell in love with director Roman Polanski, 25 years her senior. Under his spell, she went to the USA for six months to study “The Method” with Lee Strasberg. Then, Polanski put Kinski in her star-making role, of “Tess”. In the film based on the Thomas Hardy novel “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”, Kinski played a girl from a poor background whose fortunes rise and fall after she is thrust into “polite” society. The film established her and she furthered raised her profile by posing for photographer Richard Avedon, who shot a nude poster of the actress and a snake that became the rage of college dorm rooms.
Kinski moved into American films, such as Francis Ford Coppola’s uneven “One From the Heart” and opposite Malcolm McDowell in “Cat People” (both 1982), both of which made her raw, reactive sensuality briefly the rage. But Kinski’s free-spirited, sex-charged yet aloof screen persona did not click with US audiences. She seemed content to retain a low-key presence and appeared in films on both sides of the Atlantic. The same year she played pianist Clara Wieck in “Frulingssinfonie/Spring Symphony” (1983), Kinski starred in “The Moon in the Gutter” for French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, with whom she was linked romantically. But her performance–as a wealthy woman involved with Gerard Depardieu–was almost universally panned. She fared better with the critics as the wife in Wenders’ “Paris, Texas”, but that film was limited to an art-house crowd.
In 1984, she starred in two Hollywood productions, neither of which won widespread audience attention. Kinski was cast as the wife whom Dudley Moore thought was philandering in the unsatisfying remake “Unfaithfully Yours” and was alongside Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe in Tony Richardson’s “The Hotel New Hampshire”. She was miscast as the love interest to Al Pacino caught up into the colonial dispute with Britain in Hugh Hudson’s box-office dud “Revolution” (1985). Most of her subsequent films in the 80s and into the early 90s were little seen in the USA including the American ones.
But Kinski’s profile in American gossip columns and tabloids skyrocketed in the 90s when she gave birth and named Quincy Jones as the father of her daughter, Kenya Julia. Their relationship became fodder for tabloid reports and made Kinski more well-known than all her films combined. Her acting services were in greater demand and she scored a critical success as the skydiving student of Charlie Sheen’s who appears to have died on her first jump–but has not–in “Terminal Velocity” (1994). Her work in US films then became more mainstream. She was the mother of a runaway teen who may be the son of either Robin Williams or Billy Crystal in the genial comedy “Father’s Day” (1997). That same year, the busy actress co-starred with Ryan Phillippe and John Savage in “Little Boy Blue”, a study of incest and dysfunction in a Texas family, and was opposite Wesley Snipes in Mike Figgis’ study of marriage and infidelity, “One Night Stand”.
In the mid-90s, Kinski also began to appear with some regularity on American TV. She was involved in a diamond heist in “Crackerjack” (HBO, 1994) and played a German war widow who flees to the USA to start life anew in “Danielle Steel’s ‘The Ring’” (NBC, 1996).
- Also Credited As:
Nastasha Kinski, Nastassia Kinski, Nastassja Aglaia Nakszynski, Nastassja Nakszynski, Natasha Kinski, Natassja Kinski - Born:
on 01/24/1960 in Berlin, Germany - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Daughter: Kenya Julia Miambi Sarah Jones. born on February 9, 1993; father, Quincy Jones
- Daughter: Sonia Moussa. born in 1986; father, Ibrahim Moussa
- Father: Klaus Kinski. born 1926, died November 23, 1991; Nastassja was estranged from him partly due to parents’ divorce
- Half-brother: Nikolai Kinski. born on July 31, 1976
- Mother: Ruth Brigitte Tocki. divorced from Kinski’s father c. 1965
- Sister: Pola Kinski.
- Son: Aljosha Moussa. born in June 1984, prior to marriage of Kinski to his father Ibrahim Moussa
Significant Others
- Husband: M Ibrahim Moussa. married in September 1984; have two children together; divorced in 1992
- Companion: Jean-Jacques Beineix. began relationship when he was directing her in “Moon in the Gutter” (1983)
- Companion: Jonathan Krane.
- Companion: Paul Schrader. had relationship during filming of “Cat People”
- Companion: Quincy Jones. together c. 1992-94; have one child
- Companion: Roman Polanski. began relationship when she was 15; starred in his film “Tess” (1979)
Milestones
- 1975 Feature film debut, a slient part in Wim Wenders’ “Falsche Bewegung/False Moves/Wrong Move”
- 1976 Appeared in Wolfgang Petersen’s “Reifezeungnis”, a film made for German TV
- 1979 Breakthrough role as title character in “Tess”, directed by Roman Polanski
- 1981 Posed for bestselling nude poster by photographer Richard Avedon
- 1982 Made first US films, “One From the Heart” and “Cat People”
- 1984 Turned to comedy with “Unfaithfully Yours”
- 1984 Worked with Wim Wenders again on his English-language “Paris, Texas”
- 1993 Played an angel in Wenders’ “Faraway, So Close”
- 1994 Made US TV-movie debut in “Crackerjacks” (HBO)
- 1996 Starred in “Danielle Steel’s ‘The Ring’” (NBC)
- 1997 Returned to US films with “Little Boy Blue,” “Father’s Day,” and “One Night Stand”
- 1998 Offered fine supporting turn as a lesbian artist’s assistant in Neil LaBute’s “Your Friends and Neighbors”
Sadie Frost Biography
One-half of the Britpack’s “It-couple” (with husband Jude Law), the lovely, lively blue-eyed Sadie Frost has eschewed Hollywood for the more authentic experience of acting in independent films. The product of a free-wheeling, bohemian childhood, she began her career at the age of three in a Jelly Tots commercial and won a scholarship at the age of 11 to London’s Italia Conti Academy, a private theatrical conservatory. Although she made her film debut starring in “A Horse Called Jester” (1980) while still a pre-teen, she dropped out of acting briefly during her rebellious “punk” years, returning to work primarily onstage and in British TV before playing a small role in the feature thriller “Empire State” (1987). She attracted some attention as Gabriel Byrne’s sexually active little sister in “Diamond Skulls” (1989), a stylish melodrama about sex and violence among the British aristocracy, and also appeared in Peter Medak’s popular crime film “The Krays” (1990), co-starring her then-husband, Gary Kemp.
Frost’s work in “Diamond Skulls” helped her land the role of Lucy Westenra, the flirtatious, upper-crust adventuress turned blood-sucking vampire in Francis Ford Coppola’s operatic “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992). Sinking her teeth into the vivacious, quirky portrayal of the spooky, tragic vampire victim, Frost won some of the film’s best notices, but her compelling performance also helped typecast her as a gothic presence, making it hard for her to find a good follow-up project. Her next three films went largely unnoticed by the movie-going public: the zany Brit comedy “Splitting Heirs” (1993, with Rick Moranis), the gritty crime drama “Shopping” (1994, opposite Law), and the multi-national fairy tale “Magic Hunter” (also 1994). Frost finally hit the jackpot again as the tough American waitress and love object in the dark comedy “A Pyromanic’s Love Story” (1995). Disgusted with the type of roles offered, she formed Natural Nylon with fellow actors Law, Jonny Lee Miller, Sean Pertwee and Ewan McGregor, and the production company received its first producing credit on David Cronenberg’s “eXistenZ” (1999), starring Law.
Terrible reviews for her work in “Crimetime” (1996) did nothing for Frost’s career, and following a small role as one of Max’s friends in the acclaimed “Bent” (1997), she appeared in the seafaring mess “Captain Jack” (1998) and the aptly named “Rancid Aluminum” (1999). Reteaming with “The Krays” producers Ray Burdis and Dominic Anciano on their feature writing-directing debut, “Final Cut” (1999), and their follow-up, “Love, Honor and Obey” (2000), offered her the chance to work improvisationally as both projects invited the public to eavesdrop on loosely-scripted hymns to spontaneity featuring talented casts (i.e., Law, Ray Winstone). Whereas “Final Cut” was the worst kind of pretentious self-indulgence in which all of the characters were despicable, “Love, Honor and Obey” (2000) managed to be fun (with its silly costumes and Viagra jokes) as the filmmakers returned to the improvisational comedy which made their reputations on the award-winning BBC2 series “Operation Good Guys”. Frost, playing a soap star, made her film singing debut with a karaoke rendition of the 1971 hit “When You Are a King”.
- Also Credited As:
Sadie Liza Vaughn - Born:
on 03/27/1968 in London, England - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Daughter: Iris Law. accidentally ingested an Ecstasy tablet found on the floor at a children’s party at London club the Soho House on October 5, 2002; treated and released in good health
- Father: David Vaughn. painted John Lennon’s Rolls Royce; admitted to an asylum in the 1960s after a bad LSD experience; jailed in 1994 for “anarchy”; was seventeen at time of Frost’s birth
- Mother: Mary Davidson. was sixteen and unmarried when Frost was born; ran away to London and hid after giving birth; performed in Manchester; worked in Camden Lock antiques market, and in the summers packed up an old Citroen and travelled across Europe with her five daughters
- Sister: Holly Frost. younger
- Son: Finley Kemp. born c. 1990
- Son: Rafferty Law. born in 1995
- Son: Rudy Law. born five weeks premature
Significant Others
- Husband: Gary Kemp. born on October 16, 1960; formerly a member of the 1980s “synth-pop” group Spandau Ballet; met c. 1984, when she was 16 (and he was 23), appearing in one of band’s videos sprayed with gold paint; married in 1988; Frost also acted in “The Krays” (1990), in which he co-starred with with twin brother Martin; separated in 1993; divorced in 1995
- Husband: Jude Law. born on December 29, 1972; together since c. 1993 when they met during filming of “Shopping” (1994); married in August 1997
Education
- Italia Conti Academy, London, England, 1978-81 (dates approximate)
- Hampstead Comprehensive, London, England
Milestones
- 1970 Appeared in a Jelly Tots commercial at the age of three (date approximate)
- 1971 Confined to a hospital at age four with a collapsed lung (date approximate)
- 1978 Won a scholarship at age 11 to the Italia Conti Academy, a private theatrical conservatory (date approximate)
- 1980 Film debut, “A Horse Called Jester”
- 1981 Ran away to Liverpool and shaved her head at age 14; found and returned to conservatory but promptly expelled (date approximate)
- 1983 Returned to acting at age 16 (date approximate)
- 1986 Acted in director Matthew Jacobs’s debut short film, “Vardo”
- 1986 Became a member of Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre (date approximate), where she appeared in “Mumbo Jumbo”, the only female in a cast of 14
- 1987 Was featured in the English thriller “Empire State”
- 1989 Attracted some attention in the US for her work in “Diamond Skulls”, helping her to land “Dracula” role
- 1989 Had recurring role on the popular British children’s show “The Press Gang”
- 1990 Appeared in Peter Medak’s English gangster film, “The Krays”, starring first husband Gary Kemp and his twin brother Martin
- 1992 American film debut in Francis Ford Coppola’s version of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”; played the free-spirited Lucy Westenra
- 1993 Acted with John Cleese and Eric Idle, among others, in “Splitting Heirs”
- 1994 First film with future husband Jude Law, “Shopping”; played his girlfriend
- 1994 Starred opposite Gary Kemp in Hungarian helmer Ildiko Enyedi’s fantasy thriller “Magic Hunter”
- 1995 Played a spunky American waitress in “A Pyromaniac’s Love Story”
- 1997 Had small role as one of Max’s friends in “Bent”; Law also appeared as a stormtrooper
- 1998 Filmed the role of Mrs. Cheveley in a modern-dress version of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband”; unreleased as of April 2000
- 1999 Acted in Ray Burdis and Dominic Anciano’s feature writing-directing debut, “Final Cut”, an infuriating piece of cinema verite that also featured Law; she had previously worked with the pair as producers of “The Krays”
- 2000 Arrested in Berlin, Germany after becoming stuck in an elevator in the apartment block where Law was staying while filming in the city; when she told police she had left her passport in her husband’s apartment, they refused to believe her and locked her up for eight hours
- 2000 Co-starred as Rhys Ifans’ lover in the critically drubbed “Rancid Aluminum”
- 2000 Made screen singing debut covering the White Plains’ 1971 hit “When You Are a King” in “Love, Honor and Obey”, written and directed by Burdis and Anciano; Law, Miller, Pertwee and Ifans also featured
- 2000 Portrayed young governness in “Presence of Mind”, an adaptation of Henry James’ “Turn of the Screw” with Harvey Keitel and Lauren Bacall
- 2001 Had featured role in the NBC miniseries “Uprising”; briefly released in theaters after its TV showing; also released theatrically in Europe in 2002
- Appeared on stage and in children’s films
- Formed production company Natural Nylon with fellow actors Law, Jonny Lee Miller, Sean Pertwee and Ewan McGregor; company received a producing credit on David Cronenberg’s “eXistenZ” (1999), starring Law
- Raised by her mother and a succession of different men, the last a follower of the Indian mystic Baghwan Shree Rajneesh