American Zoetrope

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American Zoetrope (also known as Omni Zoetrope from 1977 to 1980 and Zoetrope Studios from 1980 until 1991) is a privately run American film production company, centered in San Francisco, California and founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.

Opened on December 12, 1969,[1] the studio has produced not only the films of Coppola (including Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Tetro), but also George Lucas's pre-Star Wars films THX 1138 and American Graffiti, as well as many others by avant-garde directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, Wim Wenders and Godfrey Reggio. American Zoetrope was an early adopter of digital filmmaking, including some of the earliest uses of HDTV.[2]

Four films produced by American Zoetrope are included in the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films. American Zoetrope-produced films have received 15 Academy Awards and 68 nominations.

File:Cafe Zoetrope Building.jpg
American Zoetrope is located in the Sentinel Building.

History

Initially located in a warehouse at 827[3][4][5] Folsom Street on the second floor of The Automatt building, the company's headquarters have, since 1972,[6] been in the historic Sentinel Building, at 916 Kearny Street in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood.

Coppola named the studio after a zoetrope he was given in the late 1960s by the filmmaker and collector of early film devices, Mogens Skot-Hansen.[7] "Zoetrope" is also the name by which Coppola's quarterly fiction magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, is often known.

The company was initially based at Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, where he had run until a dispute had emerged in 1970, a year before THX 1138 was released.[8]

In 1972, Coppola partnered with Peter Bogdanovich and William Friedkin to set up The Directors Company at Paramount Pictures, which was affiliated with Zoetrope, and The Conversation was one of the films that came out of the deal.[9] When the effort failed, the company bought out an interest in New York-based film distributor Cinema 5.[10] He later started a new company Coppola-Cinema 7 in 1975, after talks with Cinema 7 failed and set up with a major distributor.[11]

In 1980, the company bought General Service Studios in Hollywood, California, and became Zoetrope Studios, to produce and distribute films, as did later DreamWorks studio.[12][13]

Zoetrope as a whole faced bankruptcy between 1983 and 1992 after losing money on One from the Heart, and shut down its production studio in Hollywood[14][15][16] and returned to being a production company in San Francisco, initially retaining the Zoetrope Studios name, the studio readopting the American Zoetrope name in 1991 with a first-look deal at Columbia Pictures, and Bram Stoker's Dracula became the first film to come out of the pact.[17] Coppola had sold the studio in 1984 to The Singer Family and rechristened as Hollywood Center Studios.[12]

The studio also provided funding for Commercial Pictures, a studio formed by Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola in 1988, who had produced low-budget feature films, most notably Clownhouse and The Spirit of '76.[18] In the mid-1990s, the company entered into TV movies and miniseries, signing a contract with RHI Entertainment to produce material.[12] In 1997, the company signed a deal with PolyGram Television to finance television projects.[19]

In 1999, it signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for a first-look financing and production agreement.[20] In 2000, it signed a ten-year financing pact with VCL Film + Medien to handle foreign sales of their own titles.[21]

By 2007, ownership of American Zoetrope had been passed to Coppola's son and daughter, directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola.[22]

In 2010, Lionsgate announced a deal to distribute American Zoetrope films, including classics like The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, in North America on DVD, Blu-ray, electronic-sell-through, VOD as well as broadcast distribution rights.[23] The only movies from the Coppola canon that will not be released as part of the pact are The Godfather trilogy, which is owned by Paramount.[24]

Zoetrope.com, the Coppola family's website, was created around 1996[25] and became an online community for writers. In 2016, Francis Ford Coppola announced its relaunch as a "virtual studio".[26]

In 2024, American Zoetrope earned its first Tony Award for Best Musical as one of the producers of the 2023 stage musical adaptation of The Outsiders.[27]

Filmography

Feature films

Year Title Director Company Credit References
Template:Dts The Rain People Francis Ford Coppola American Zoetrope Production company [28][29]
Template:Dts THX 1138 George Lucas [28]
Template:Dts The Godfather Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King Hans-Jürgen Syberberg Distributor [28]
Template:Dts American Graffiti George Lucas Production company [28]
Template:Dts The Conversation Francis Ford Coppola [28]
The Godfather Part II Francis Ford Coppola Production facilities furnished through (as American Zoetrope San Francisco) [28]
Template:Dts Perfumed Nightmare Kidlat Tahimik Distributor [28]
Hitler: A Film from Germany Hans-Jürgen Syberberg Omni Zoetrope Distributor [28]
Template:Dts Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola Production company [28][30]
The Black Stallion Carroll Ballard [28]
Template:Dts Sauve qui peut (la vie) Jean-Luc Godard Zoetrope Studios Production company/distributor [28]
Kagemusha Akira Kurosawa Production company [28]
Template:Dts Parsifal Hans-Jürgen Syberberg Distributor [28]
The Escape Artist Caleb Deschanel Production company [28]
Passion Jean-Luc Godard Production company/distributor [28]
The Grey Fox Phillip Borsos Production company [28]
Koyaanisqatsi Godfrey Reggio
The Making of 'One from the Heart' Tony St. John
Hammett Wim Wenders [28]
One from the Heart Francis Ford Coppola Production company/distributor [28]
Template:Dts The Outsiders Francis Ford Coppola Production company [28]
Rumble Fish Francis Ford Coppola [28]
The Black Stallion Returns Robert Dalva [28]
Template:Dts The Cotton Club Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Template:Dts Seven Minutes in Heaven Linda Feferman
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters Paul Schrader [28]
Template:Dts Peggy Sue Got Married Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Template:Dts Tough Guys Don't Dance Norman Mailer
Gardens of Stone Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Barfly Barbet Schroeder [28]
Template:Dts Tucker: The Man and His Dream Francis Ford Coppola
Template:Dts Wait Until Spring, Bandini Dominique Deruddere [28]
Template:Dts The Godfather Part III Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Template:Dts Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola, and George Hickenlooper American Zoetrope [28]
Template:Dts Bram Stoker's Dracula Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Wind Carroll Ballard [28]
Template:Dts The Secret Garden Agnieszka Holland [28]
Template:Dts Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Kenneth Branagh [28]
Don Juan DeMarco Jeremy Leven [28]
Template:Dts Haunted Lewis Gilbert
My Family Gregory Nava [28]
Template:Dts Jack Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Template:Dts The Rainmaker Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Buddy Caroline Thompson Production company (as An American Zoetrope Production) [28]
Template:Dts The Florentine Nick Stagliano Production company
The Virgin Suicides Sofia Coppola [28]
The Third Miracle Agnieszka Holland [28]
Sleepy Hollow Tim Burton [28]
Template:Dts Jeepers Creepers Victor Salva [28]
CQ Roman Coppola [28]
No Such Thing Hal Hartley [28]
Suriyothai Chatrichalerm Yukol [28]
Template:Dts Pumpkin Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder [28]
Assassination Tango Robert Duvall [28]
Template:Dts Lost in Translation Sofia Coppola [28]
Jeepers Creepers 2 Victor Salva [28]
Template:Dts Kinsey Bill Condon Production company (uncredited) [28]
Template:Dts Marie Antoinette Sofia Coppola Production company [28]
The Good Shepherd Robert De Niro [28]
Template:Dts Youth Without Youth Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Template:Dts Tetro Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Template:Dts Somewhere Sofia Coppola
Template:Dts Twixt Francis Ford Coppola [28]
Template:Dts A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III Roman Coppola [28]
On the Road Walter Salles [28]
Template:Dts Palo Alto Gia Coppola [28]
The Bling Ring Sofia Coppola [28]
Template:Dts Life After Beth Jeff Baena [28]
Template:Dts A Very Murray Christmas Sofia Coppola [28]
Last Days in the Desert Rodrigo García [31]
Template:Dts Paris Can Wait Eleanor Coppola [28]
Joshy Jeff Baena [28]
Template:Dts The Beguiled Sofia Coppola [28]
Template:Dts Love Is Love Is Love Eleanor Coppola [32]
On the Rocks Sofia Coppola [33]
2021 Mainstream Gia Coppola [34]
2023 Fairyland Andrew Durham [35]
Priscilla Sofia Coppola
2024 Megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola

Television series

Year Title Creator Company Credit Network Notes References
1990 The Outsiders characters by:
S.E. Hinton
developed by:
S.E. Hinton
Joe Byrne
Jeb Rosebrook
Zoetrope Studios Production Company Fox co-production with Papazian-Hirsch Entertainment
1997 The Odyssey Andrei Konchalovsky
based on Odyssey by:
Homer
American Zoetrope Production Company (as American Zoetrope San Francisco) NBC miniseries; co-production with Hallmark Entertainment [28]
1998 Moby Dick Anton Diether
Franc Roddam
Benedict Fitzgerald
based on Moby-Dick by:
Herman Melville
Production Company USA Network miniseries; co-production with Hallmark Entertainment, Nine Network Australia and USA Pictures [28]
1998–2001 First Wave Chris Brancato Sci-Fi Channel co-production with Sugar Entertainment [28]
2003 Platinum John Ridley
Sofia Coppola
UPN co-production with The Greenblatt/Janollari Studio, International Famous Players Radio Picture Corporation and Eye Productions [36]
2004–2007 The 4400 René Echevarria
Scott Peters
USA Network co-production with Renegade 83, Viacom Productions (season 1), Paramount Network Television (season 2) and CBS Paramount Network Television (seasons 3–4)
2014–2018 Mozart in the Jungle based on Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music by:
Blair Tindall
developed by:
Roman Coppola
Jason Schwartzman
Alex Timbers
Paul Weitz
Amazon Video co-production with Depth of Field, Picrow and Amazon Studios [28]
File:Cafe Zoetrope Wide.jpg
Cafe Zoetrope at ground level of the building

Cafe Zoetrope

In the building lobby, Coppola operates a small Italian café, Cafe Zoetrope, featuring Inglenook Estate wine and memorabilia from his films.[37] Earlier, the building had been the location of Enrico Banducci's "hungry i" nightclub.

The neighborhood is well known for its cafes and its writers. Coppola wrote much of the screenplay for The Godfather in the nearby Caffe Trieste and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books is located up Columbus Avenue from the Sentinel Building.

Further reading

References

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  1. Fog City Mavericks. Starz, Englewood, CO, USA. June 15, 2011. Television.
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  22. Coppola stated this in an interview with Harry Knowles for Ain't It Cool News published on May 8, 2007.
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  29. American Zoetrope [us]
  30. Zoetrope Studios [us]
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External links

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