Francis Ford Coppola wrote the script in the early 1980s, but the film was kept on the back-burner partially due to his financial debts. Pre-production finally began in 2001 after filming 30 hours of second unit footage and holding table read with Paul Newman, Uma Thurman, Robert De Niro, James Gandolfini, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Edie Falco, and Kevin Spacey, but the project was scrapped after the September 11 attacks, because a scene from the script (page 166) "predicted" the attacks. Coppola fully abandoned the project in 2007, and didn't begin developing it again until 2019.
Francis Ford Coppola financed the entire $120 million film out of his own pocket. He had done the same with Apocalypse Now (1979) and Coup de coeur (1981), and the failure of the latter made him declare bankruptcy. All his subsequent films up to L'Idéaliste (1997) were made to pay off his debts.
Laurence Fishburne said Francis Ford Coppola was discussing this film during production on Apocalypse Now (1979). Rob Lowe also recalled him discussing it while filming Outsiders (1983).
If you scan one of the QR codes displayed at the auction, it directs you to a message that says: 'Thank you for your pledge! xoxo, Vesta.'"
The film is dedicated to Francis Ford Coppola's wife, Eleanor Coppola, who died in April 2024, while it was in post production.
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