Roman Coppola

Roman François Coppola (born April 22, 1965) is an American director. He is the son of Francis Ford and Eleanor Coppola, and is known for his film collaborations with Wes Anderson.

Coppola serves as president of film company American Zoetrope. He is also the founder and owner of The Directors Bureau, a commercial and music video production company.

Early life Roman Coppola is the son of documentary filmmaker, artist, and writer Eleanor Coppola (née Neil) and director Francis Ford Coppola.

He and Sofia Coppola formed a production company Commercial Pictures in 1988, with funding from American Zoetrope. He produced three films Clownhouse, The Spirit of '76 and Ballad of a Gunfighter under the name.

Career Coppola began his directing career by overseeing in-camera visual effects and second unit direction for Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which garnered a BAFTA Award nomination for Visual Effects. He has continued to do second unit direction throughout his career, including his father's Jack, The Rainmaker, Youth Without Youth, Tetro, and Megalopolis; collaborator Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited; and his sister Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette.

In the 1990s, Coppola established himself as an influential music video and commercial director. Through his production company, The Directors Bureau, he directed all four music videos for The Strokes' 2001 debut album, Is This It, as well as "12:51" for Room on Fire. His other music videos include clips for Daft Punk, Lilys, Moby, The Presidents of the United States of America, Ween, Green Day, and Fatboy Slim. His music video for Phoenix's "Funky Squaredance" was invited into the permanent collection at the New York Museum of Modern Art. He has also been a supporter of cousin Jason Schwartzman's musical side project, Coconut Records.

He also directed a commercial for Levi's White Tab in 1997.

His first feature film, CQ, premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and was well-received critically. Set in Paris in 1969, CQ centers on a young film editor trying to juggle his personal and professional life while simultaneously juggling a science fiction adventure and his own personal art film. The film holds a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 76 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "CQ is a stylish and fun homage to campy 1960s flicks". Metacritic gave the film a 56/100 "mixed or average" approval rating based on 26 reviews.

Coppola's second feature, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, debuted in 2012 at the Rome Film Festival. Charlie Sheen starred as the title character, a graphic designer dealing with a break-up. The cast also included Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. Reviews for the film tended toward the negative. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club gave the movie an F, saying that "it isn't a movie so much as a feature-length perfume commercial for a Charlie Sheen signature cologne with gorgeous packaging and absolutely nothing inside." The Dallas Observer said that the film "might generously be described as cut-and-paste – or more accurately as 'throw stuff to the wall and see what sticks'" and it was "a clunker". The New York Daily News gave Charles Swan III one star out of five, saying that "you want to swat it away" and that "maybe with this out of his [Coppola's] system, he'll think up something better." Time said that the film "does not lead to a deeper understanding of Charlie Sheen. It does, however, demonstrate his compulsion for poor judgment and bad choices. But weren't we already convinced of that?" Lisa Schwarzbaum, reviewer for Entertainment Weekly, gave the film a C and a milder response, writing, "The idea of this home-movie-with-higher-production-values directed by Roman Coppola is no less sweet for being unoriginal ... The execution, on the other hand, is perilously self-absorbed, a private party involving friends, family, too many fantasy sequences, and an abundance of costume and set design to create a notion of a stylized L.A. spritzed with eau de Playboy."

In 2009, he directed series of commercials for the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G mobile phone line.

In 2015, he directed a State Farm commercial.

In 2018, he co-wrote the story for Wes Anderson's adult stop-motion animated science-fiction drama film Isle of Dogs, which was released to critical acclaim for its animation, story, musical score, and deadpan humor. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, praising it for taking risks, and saying: "It's smart and different and sometimes deliberately odd and really funny—rarely in a laugh-out-loud way, more in a smile-and-nod-I-get-the-joke kind of way."

In 2021, he again collaborated with Wes Anderson for the film The French Dispatch, he co-wrote the story and served as an executive producer. It received generally positive reviews. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised the "hand-crafted visual delights and eccentric performances" and wrote: "While The French Dispatch might seem like an anthology of vignettes without a strong overarching theme, every moment is graced by Anderson's love for the written word and the oddball characters who dedicate their professional lives to it". Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw said: "It might not be at the very zenith of what he can achieve but for sheer moment-by-moment pleasure, and for laughs, this is a treat". It was mentioned in lists of the best films of the year by The New Yorker (#1), The Forward (the best movie), IndieWire (#6), Esquire (#38), New Musical Express (#11), British Film Institute (#23) and Vogue (unlisted).

Directors Bureau special projects Coppola is also an inventor and entrepreneur, responsible for the Photobubble Company, Pacific Tote Company, and a number of projects through the "Special Projects" arm of his production company, Directors Bureau.

His company, Pacific Tote Company, produces a line of beach bags which are handmade in California and known for their signature multicolor designs.

Filmography Feature films Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes 1983 Rumble Fish 1989 Clownhouse 1990 The Spirit of '76 2002 CQ 2007 The Darjeeling Limited Co-writer with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman 2010 Somewhere 2012 Moonrise Kingdom Co-writer with Wes Anderson On the Road A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III 2013The Bling Ring 2017 The Beguiled 2018 Isle of Dogs Story with Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura 2020 On the Rocks 2021 The French Dispatch Story with Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness and Jason Schwartzman 2022 The Seven Faces of Jane 2023 Fairyland Asteroid City Story with Wes Anderson 2025 The Phoenician Scheme Story with Wes Anderson

Additional credits

Acting credits

Television Year Title Director Executive producer Writer Notes 2002 $2 Bill Episode: "The Strokes" 2013 Arcade Fire in Here Comes the Night Time Television special 2014–2018 Mozart in the Jungle 2015 A Very Murray Christmas Television special 2020 Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special Television special

Short films

Music videos

Year Artist Song1994 Nancy Boy "Deep Sleep Motel" Ween "Voodoo Lady" P.M. Dawn "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"1995 Butterglory "She's Got the Akshun" Love Battery "Harold's Pink Room" The Presidents of the United States of America "Lump" (Version #1) / "Kitty" Matthew Sweet "Sick of Myself" / "We're the Same" Mike Watt & Evan Dando "Piss-Bottle Man"1996 Green Day "Walking Contradiction" Mansun "Taxloss" The Presidents of the United States of America "Lump" (Version #2) / "Peaches" / "Dune Buggy" / "Mach 5" The Rentals "Waiting" 1997 Wyclef Jean and The Refugee All-Stars featuring John Forté and Pras "We Trying to Stay Alive"1998 God Lives Underwater "From Your Mouth" Cassius "Foxxy" Daft Punk "Revolution 909" Fatboy Slim "Gangster Tripping" Moby "Honey"1999 Cassius "La Mouche" Supergrass "We Still Need More (Than Anyone Can Give)"2000 Air "Playground Love" Phoenix "Funky Squaredance" Mellow "Another Mellow Winter" 2001 The Strokes "Last Nite" (Version #2)2002 Marianne Faithfull "Sex with Strangers" Phantom Planet "California" The Strokes "The Modern Age" / "Hard to Explain" (Version #2) / "Someday" The Vines "Get Free"2003 Ima Robot "Dynomite" The Strokes "12:51" 2004 Phoenix "Everything Is Everything"2006 Phoenix "Long Distance Call" Rooney "Tell Me Soon" 2007 Arctic Monkeys "Teddy Picker" 2009 Sébastien Tellier "L'Amour et La Violence" 2013 Arcade Fire "Here Comes the Night Time" 2014 Kylie Minogue "Sexercize" 2015 Beastie Boys featuring Nas "Too Many Rappers" 2017 Carly Rae Jepsen and Lil Yachty "It Takes Two"2020 The Strokes "The Adults Are Talking" Mariah Carey "Oh Santa!" Paul McCartney "Find My Way"

Commercials and promotional videos Year Title Director Writer Notes 1997 Levi's White Tab: Daytrippers 2004 Burger King: Ugoff 2009 T-Mobile: Icons, Comedians, Musicians Series of commercials for the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G mobile phone line 2010 Stella Artois: Apartomatic Wes Anderson 2012 Cousin Ben Troop Screening with Jason Schwartzman Promotional short Wes Anderson 2013 Prada: Candy Co-directed with Wes Anderson 2015 Magic Jingle Elvis State Farm commercial 2017 L'Oréal Paris L'Oréal Paris commercial for new Elvive haircare line

Awards and honors In 2019, Coppola was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Association Year Category Nominated work Result Ref(s) Academy Awards2013 Best Original Screenplay Moonrise Kingdom BAFTA Awards 1994 Best Special Effects Bram Stoker's Dracula Grammy Awards 1997 Best Music Video, Short Form "Walking Contradiction" NYFCO Award 2007 Best Screenplay The Darjeeling Limited Rome Film Festival 2012 Golden Marc'Aurelio Award A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III