Production has begun on writer-director Sofia Coppola’s next project, “The Beguiled.” The Louisiana production kicked off yesterday.
Coppola adapted the screenplay from Thomas Cullinan’s novel of the same name, which focuses on a girls’ school in the state of Virginia in 1864. “As the Civil War rages,” the release details, “The Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies has been sheltered from the outside world — until the day a wounded Union soldier is discovered nearby and taken in.”
The novel was made into a 1971 film starring Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, and Elizabeth Hartman. Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, and Colin Farrell are starring in this iteration of film, which Focus Features will release on June 23, 2017.
Production designer Anne Ross is reteaming with Coppola on the project. “The Beguiled” will mark her fifth film collaboration with the director. Costume designer Stacey Battat is working with Coppola for the fourth time.
“It is personally and professionally a pleasure to be making a movie with Sofia Coppola again,” said Focus chairman Peter Kujawski. “The twisted turns of the story, combined with Sofia’s empathy for the characters being portrayed by these gifted actors, will keep audiences in suspense. Everyone at Focus is thrilled to be bringing ‘The Beguiled’ to theaters next summer.”
Coppola is one of four women in history who have been nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards. She was nominated for “Lost in Translation,” for which she won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Let’s hope that “The Beguiled” can bring her the same accolades and put another female director up on the podium come Oscar time 2018.
