‘Beginners’ & ‘Tanner Hall’ Composer Roger Neil Writing Score
Late last year, during the press rounds for “Somewhere,” we spoke to Sofia Coppola, who was tight-lipped, but gave us a little teaser bit of info and a bit of hope: her brother Roman Coppola was finally working on a new film. “He’s working on something new,” she told us coyly. Something he would writing and directing again we asked? “Yeah, he’s working on a script that he put together.”
To recap, it’s been ten years since Coppola made the the weird and wonderful “CQ” in 2001. The writer/director’s paean to the groovy films of the ‘60s, influenced by the cheesy/awesome super-thief Mario Bava action-heist film, “Danger: Diabolik,” “CQ” mostly fell on deaf ears at the time, but it’s rightly gained a cult following in some small circles (ours). It’s a film within a film, and the story of a young director (Jeremy Davies) who moves to Paris to make a cheesy sci-fi movie. While he deals with the debacle of the shoot, he directs his own personal art film, copes with his crumbling relationship, and becomes infatuated with the sci-fi movie’s starlet (model Angela Lindvall). With its purposefully cornball, period-piece effects and its excellent psychedelic go-go score by the French band Mellow, it’s an incredibly underrated film. Jason Schwartzman and Giancarlo Giannini play sleazy Italian directors and producers and they steal every scene with deliciously unctuous turns.
A talented multi-hyphenate, Coppola has kept busy in the ensuing years co-writing “The Darjeeling Limited” with Wes Anderson and Schwartzman, and Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom“; shooting second unit on Anderson films and the movies of his sister and father (“Marie Antoinette,” “Tetro“) and even delving into producing (“Somewhere”). Not to mention directing lots of great music videos along the way (Phoenix, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Rooney). But a new feature-length effort has eluded us. Likely because Coppola’s just been preoccupied with his various productions and role as owner of the production company The Directors Bureau. But a new project is on the horizon and we have some small details.
While plot details are being kept under wraps, we know that the title of the film is “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.” A coming-of-age tale perhaps? A comedy? A dramedy? Pretty much everything about it is unknown. However, we’ve found one small detail. Roger Neil, the musician and composer of the music to Mike Mills‘ “Beginners” and “Tanner Hall” starring Rooney Mara, is writing the score according to his website. Well regarded as an arranger and conductor in the recording industry, Neil also worked with Mellow on “CQ,” and has collaborated with eclectic artists like Beck, AIr, David Sylvian, Jason Falkner, Natalie Merchant, Stereolab, Sondre Lerche, Stars of Track & Field and more. He was also the orchestral string arranger on “The Brothers Bloom” and did the same for the score to “Stranger Than Fiction” which was co-written by Brian Reitzell and Britt Daniel of indie-rockers Spoon.
That’s all we’ve got for the moment. Emails to the Director’s Bureau were not returned as of press time. More details when we have them and or if you know a thing or two about a thing or two, email us. This one’s likely still in the early stages, but a script is obviously in the works (possibly complete) and hopefully funding and a start date are not far behind.