# Roman Coppola

Roman François Coppola (born April 22, 1965) is an American filmmaker and music video 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.

## 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 | No | No | Associate | |
| 1989 | Clownhouse | No | No | Executive | |
| 1990 | The Spirit of '76 | No | Story | Executive | |
| 2001 | CQ | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 2007 | The Darjeeling Limited | No | Yes | Yes | Co-writer with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman |
| 2010 | Somewhere | No | No | Yes | |
| 2012 | Moonrise Kingdom | No | Yes | No | Co-writer with Wes Anderson |
| 2012 | On the Road | No | No | Yes | |
| 2012 | A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2013 | The Bling Ring | No | No | Yes | |
| 2017 | The Beguiled | No | No | Yes | |
| 2018 | Isle of Dogs | No | Story | No | Story with Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura |
| 2020 | On the Rocks | No | No | Executive | |
| 2021 | The French Dispatch | No | Story | Executive | Story with Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness and Jason Schwartzman |
| 2022 | The Seven Faces of Jane | No | No | Yes | |
| 2023 | Fairyland | No | No | Executive | |
| 2023 | Asteroid City | No | Story | Executive | Story with Wes Anderson |
| 2025 | The Phoenician Scheme | No | Yes | No | Co-writer with Wes Anderson |

#### Additional directing credits

| Year | Title | Second Unit | Other | Director |
| 1992 | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Yes | Visual effects director | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 1996 | Jack | Yes | No | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 1997 | The Rainmaker | Yes | No | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 1999 | The Virgin Suicides | Yes | No | Sofia Coppola |
| 2003 | Lost in Translation | No | Additional director | Sofia Coppola |
| 2004 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | Yes | No | Wes Anderson |
| 2006 | Marie Antoinette | Yes | No | Sofia Coppola |
| 2007 | The Darjeeling Limited | Yes | No | Wes Anderson |
| 2007 | Youth Without Youth | Yes | No | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 2009 | Tetro | Yes | No | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 2014 | The Grand Budapest Hotel | No | Special photography unit | Wes Anderson |
| 2023 | Priscilla | Yes | No | Sofia Coppola |
| 2024 | Megalopolis | Yes | No | Francis Ford Coppola |

#### Acting credits

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1966 | You're a Big Boy Now | Baby boy in carriage | Uncredited |
| 1972 | The Godfather | Boy on street who attended funeral | Uncredited |
| 1974 | The Godfather Part II | Sonny Corleone as a boy | Uncredited |
| 1979 | Apocalypse Now | Francis de Marais | Redux version only |
| 1999 | Gunfighter | Bandido | |
| 1999 | Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace | Senate Guard | Uncredited |
| 2009 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Squirrel Contractor | Voice |
| 2018 | Isle of Dogs | Igor | Voice |

### Television

| Year | Title | Director | Executive producer | Writer | Notes |
| 2002 | $2 Bill | Yes | No | No | Episode: "The Strokes" |
| 2013 | Arcade Fire in Here Comes the Night Time | Yes | No | No | Television special |
| 2014–2018 | Mozart in the Jungle | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2015 | A Very Murray Christmas | Associate | Yes | No | Television special |
| 2020 | Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special | Yes | Yes | No | Co-directed with Hamish Hamilton; Television special |

### Short films

| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Other credit(s) | Notes |
| 1996 | Bed, Bath and Beyond | No | No | No | Actor, cinematographer | |
| 1999 | Torrance Rises | No | No | No | Cinematographer | |
| 2011 | Fight for Your Right Revisited | No | No | No | Actor | Role: Café Patron |
| 2012 | ¡El Tonto | No | No | Yes | | |
| 2012 | Modern/Love | No | No | Yes | | |
| 2012 | The Mirror Between Us | No | No | Yes | | |
| 2012 | Eugene | No | No | Executive | | |
| 2012 | Die Again, Undead One | Yes | Yes | Yes | | |
| 2013 | Castello Cavalcanti | No | No | Yes | | |
| 2016 | Mommeostasis | Yes | No | No | | |
| 2023 | The Swan | No | No | No | Cinematographer | |

### Music videos

| Year | Artist | Song |
| 1994 | Nancy Boy | "Deep Sleep Motel" |
| 1994 | Ween | "Voodoo Lady" |
| 1994 | P.M. Dawn | "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" |
| 1995 | Butterglory | "She's Got the Akshun" |
| 1995 | Love Battery | "Harold's Pink Room" |
| 1995 | The Presidents of the United States of America | "Lump" (Version #1) / "Kitty" |
| 1995 | Matthew Sweet | "Sick of Myself" / "We're the Same" |
| 1995 | Mike Watt & Evan Dando | "Piss-Bottle Man" |
| 1996 | Green Day | "Walking Contradiction" |
| 1996 | Mansun | "Taxloss" |
| 1996 | The Presidents of the United States of America | "Lump" (Version #2) / "Peaches" / "Dune Buggy" / "Mach 5" |
| 1996 | 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" |
| 1998 | Cassius | "Foxxy" |
| 1998 | Daft Punk | "Revolution 909" |
| 1998 | Fatboy Slim | "Gangster Tripping" |
| 1998 | Moby | "Honey" |
| 1999 | Cassius | "La Mouche" |
| 1999 | Supergrass | "We Still Need More (Than Anyone Can Give)" |
| 2000 | Air | "Playground Love" |
| 2000 | Phoenix | "Funky Squaredance" |
| 2000 | Mellow | "Another Mellow Winter" |
| 2001 | The Strokes | "Last Nite" (Version #2) |
| 2002 | Marianne Faithfull | "Sex with Strangers" |
| 2002 | Phantom Planet | "California" |
| 2002 | The Strokes | "The Modern Age" / "Hard to Explain" (Version #2) / "Someday" |
| 2002 | The Vines | "Get Free" |
| 2003 | Ima Robot | "Dynomite" |
| 2003 | The Strokes | "12:51" |
| 2004 | Phoenix | "Everything Is Everything" |
| 2006 | Phoenix | "Long Distance Call" |
| 2006 | 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" |
| 2020 | Mariah Carey | "Oh Santa!" |
| 2020 | Paul McCartney | "Find My Way" |

### Commercials and promotional videos

| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
| 1997 | Levi's White Tab: Daytrippers | Yes | No | |
| 2004 | Burger King: Ugoff | Yes | No |
| 2009 | T-Mobile: Icons, Comedians, Musicians | Yes | No | Series of commercials for the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G mobile phone line |
| 2010 | Stella Artois: Apartomatic | Yes | No | Co-directed with Wes Anderson |
| 2012 | Cousin Ben Troop Screening with Jason Schwartzman | No | Yes | Promotional short for Moonrise Kingdom; co-written with Wes Anderson |
| 2013 | Prada: Candy | Yes | No | Co-directed with Wes Anderson |
| 2015 | Magic Jingle Elvis | Yes | No | State Farm commercial |
| 2017 | L'Oréal Paris | Yes | No | 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 |
| Academy Awards | 2013 | Best Original Screenplay (Shared with Wes Anderson) | Moonrise Kingdom | Nominated |
| BAFTA Awards | 1994 | Best Special Effects (Shared with Gary Gutierrez, Michael Lantieri, and Gene Warren Jr.) | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Nominated |
| Grammy Awards | 1997 | Best Music Video, Short Form | "Walking Contradiction" | Nominated |
| NYFCO Award | 2007 | Best Screenplay (Shared with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman) | The Darjeeling Limited | Won |
| Rome Film Festival | 2012 | Golden Marc'Aurelio Award | A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III | Nominated |