Speaking of Coppola and Youth Without Youth, Apple's website posted some info about the making of the film
After decades of work-for-hire directorial efforts for studios to pay off debt accumulated from the demise of his ambitious Zoetrope studios, Coppola has found a way to make a film in his own style and of his choosing. He was introduced to the works of Eliade by his childhood friend Wendy Doniger, a religious studies professor at the University of Chicago. After his long-planned film project Megalopolis, about a new utopia in a near-future New York, was undermined by the real world events of 9/11, Coppola shifted his interest to Eliade’s novella. Says Coppola: “I suddenly thought: ‘I can make this into a movie. I won’t tell anyone. I’ll just start doing it.’”
Coppola admits that like the lead character Dominic, he was stumped by his inability to complete his next important work. “At 66, I was frustrated,” he says. “I hadn’t made a film in eight years. My businesses were thriving, but my creative life was unfulfilled.”
With his project set, Coppola decided as well on a return to self-funded, low-budget, personal filmmaking, the kinds of efforts he made briefly before the runaway success of The Godfather changed the course of his career. He scouted locations in Romania, hired a largely Romanian cast and crew, including the young cinematographer Mihai Malaimare, Jr., and had his technical crew outfit a special Dodge Sprinter van with two Sony 900S digital cameras, lenses, and other necessary equipment sufficient to create a complete studio-on-wheels.
[Click to read the rest of Apple - Pro - Profiles - Francis Ford Coppola and Walter Murch]
