Wrong Coppola Movie Is Getting A Behind-The-Scenes Film
While we may eventually learn that this is all a sham project created purely as an excuse to see Oscar Isaac grow a luxurious beard, we're apparently getting a movie all about the making of The Godfather starring Isaac as director/future wine tycoon Francis Ford Coppola and Jake Gyllenhaal as legendary producer/cocaine aficionado Robert Evans. But as fun as that sounds, there's another Coppola movie's production we'd rather see dramatized onscreen. No, not Apocalypse Now, not even Jack, we're talking about Bram Stoker's Dracula.
The 1992 horror movie starring Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, and Gary Oldman's creepy old lady wig is spectacularly bonkers, but more importantly, its behind-the-scenes anecdotes are pretty great. Like how Coppola's research process included a pilgrimage to Vlad the Impaler's grave, or the fact that the ending was saved by George Lucas, who famously hasn't always been the best at crafting killer conclusions.
Coppola also decided to go old school for the visual effects. Like old old school. Like everyone who went to that school is dead now. Coppola didn't just want analog effects, he wanted it all to be in camera, meaning no effects would be done in post-production. After no one took him "seriously" Coppola fired his entire visual effects department and hired his 29-year-old son Roman who happened to be an "enthusiast about magic." So for scenes like this one ...
... instead of superimposing two shots, they built a giant-ass book and filmed it next to a model train. And for Dracula's wandering shadow ...
Coppola hired a "shadow wrangler" to mime Gary Oldman's movements. And the on-set mood was often heated; not only did Winona Ryder and Oldman clash, but Coppola also went full Kubrick and tried to get Keanu Reeves to verbally abuse Ryder to make her cry more authentically. Which he refused to do because Keanu is a goddamn saint. If it was authenticity he was worried about, maybe Francis could have sprung for a damn dialect coach.
Anyway, the ball's in your court, Hollywood.
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Top Image: Paramount/Columbia Pictures
