American Zoetrope

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,<ref>Fog City Mavericks. Starz, Englewood, CO, USA. June 15, 2011. Television.</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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<ref name="Howell-827-folsom">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="twitter-827">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="sfweekly-Connelly-Zoetrope">Template:Cite news</ref> Folsom Street on the second floor of The Automatt building, the company's headquarters have, since 1972,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> "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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When the effort failed, the company bought out an interest in New York-based film distributor Cinema 5.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He later started a new company Coppola-Cinema 7 in 1975, after talks with Cinema 7 failed and set up with a major distributor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="nofilmschool-Hellerman-Zoetrope">Template:Cite web</ref>

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<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Coppola had sold the studio in 1984 to The Singer Family and rechristened as Hollywood Center Studios.<ref name=":0" />

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the mid-1990s, the company entered into TV movies and miniseries, signing a contract with RHI Entertainment to produce material.<ref name=":0" /> In 1997, the company signed a deal with PolyGram Television to finance television projects.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1999, it signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for a first-look financing and production agreement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2000, it signed a ten-year financing pact with VCL Film + Medien to handle foreign sales of their own titles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

By 2007, ownership of American Zoetrope had been passed to Coppola's son and daughter, directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola.<ref>Coppola stated this in an interview with Harry Knowles for Ain't It Cool News published on May 8, 2007.</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web </ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web </ref>

Zoetrope.com, the Coppola family's website, was created around 1996<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and became an online community for writers. In 2016, Francis Ford Coppola announced its relaunch as a "virtual studio".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Director	Company	Credit	References
Template:Dts	The Rain People	Francis Ford Coppola	American Zoetrope	Production company	<ref name="ZoetropeList" /><ref>American Zoetrope [us]</ref>
Template:Dts	THX 1138	George Lucas			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Godfather	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg		Distributor	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	American Graffiti	George Lucas		Production company	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Conversation	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	The Godfather Part II	Francis Ford Coppola		Production facilities furnished through (as American Zoetrope San Francisco)	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Perfumed Nightmare	Kidlat Tahimik		Distributor	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Hitler: A Film from Germany	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg	Omni Zoetrope	Distributor	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Apocalypse Now	Francis Ford Coppola		Production company	<ref name="ZoetropeList" /><ref>Zoetrope Studios [us]</ref>
	The Black Stallion	Carroll Ballard			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Sauve qui peut (la vie)	Jean-Luc Godard	Zoetrope Studios	Production company/distributor	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Kagemusha	Akira Kurosawa		Production company	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Parsifal	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg		Distributor	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	The Escape Artist	Caleb Deschanel		Production company	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Passion	Jean-Luc Godard		Production company/distributor	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	The Grey Fox	Phillip Borsos		Production company	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Koyaanisqatsi	Godfrey Reggio
	The Making of 'One from the Heart'	Tony St. John
	Hammett	Wim Wenders			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	One from the Heart	Francis Ford Coppola		Production company/distributor	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Outsiders	Francis Ford Coppola		Production company	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Rumble Fish	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	The Black Stallion Returns	Robert Dalva			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Cotton Club	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Seven Minutes in Heaven	Linda Feferman
	Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters	Paul Schrader			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Peggy Sue Got Married	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Tough Guys Don't Dance	Norman Mailer
	Gardens of Stone	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Barfly	Barbet Schroeder			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Tucker: The Man and His Dream	Francis Ford Coppola
Template:Dts	Wait Until Spring, Bandini	Dominique Deruddere			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Godfather Part III	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse	Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola, and George Hickenlooper	American Zoetrope		<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Bram Stoker's Dracula	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Wind	Carroll Ballard			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Secret Garden	Agnieszka Holland			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Mary Shelley's Frankenstein	Kenneth Branagh			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Don Juan DeMarco	Jeremy Leven			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Haunted	Lewis Gilbert
	My Family	Gregory Nava			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Jack	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Rainmaker	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Buddy	Caroline Thompson		Production company (as An American Zoetrope Production)	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Florentine	Nick Stagliano		Production company
	The Virgin Suicides	Sofia Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	The Third Miracle	Agnieszka Holland			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Sleepy Hollow	Tim Burton			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Jeepers Creepers	Victor Salva			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	CQ	Roman Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	No Such Thing	Hal Hartley			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Suriyothai	Chatrichalerm Yukol			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Pumpkin	Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Assassination Tango	Robert Duvall			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Lost in Translation	Sofia Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Jeepers Creepers 2	Victor Salva			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Kinsey	Bill Condon		Production company (uncredited)	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Marie Antoinette	Sofia Coppola		Production company	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	The Good Shepherd	Robert De Niro			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Youth Without Youth	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Tetro	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Somewhere	Sofia Coppola
Template:Dts	Twixt	Francis Ford Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList">"American Zoetrope: Films", zoetrope.com. Retrieved 2023-07-17.</ref>
Template:Dts	A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III	Roman Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	On the Road	Walter Salles			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Palo Alto	Gia Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	The Bling Ring	Sofia Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Life After Beth	Jeff Baena			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	A Very Murray Christmas	Sofia Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Last Days in the Desert	Rodrigo García			<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Dts	Paris Can Wait	Eleanor Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
	Joshy	Jeff Baena			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	The Beguiled	Sofia Coppola			<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
Template:Dts	Love Is Love Is Love	Eleanor Coppola			<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	On the Rocks	Sofia Coppola			<ref name="Announcement">Template:Cite web</ref>
2021	Mainstream	Gia Coppola			<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023	Fairyland	Andrew Durham			<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	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	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
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	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
1998–2001	First Wave	Chris Brancato			Sci-Fi Channel	co-production with Sugar Entertainment	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />
2003	Platinum	John Ridley Sofia Coppola			UPN	co-production with The Greenblatt/Janollari Studio, International Famous Players Radio Picture Corporation and Eye Productions	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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	<ref name="ZoetropeList" />

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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

• Davies, Tom S., "Impressive Failures: Mavericks of Film Authorship and the Impossibility of Success in Hollywood" (2017). City University of New York Academic Works.

External links

• Template:Official website