Eleanor Coppola, ‘Hearts of Darkness’ Director and Francis Ford Coppola’s Wife, Dies at 87
variety.comJ. Kim Murphy Eleanor Coppola, an American filmmaker who won an Emmy for chronicling her husband Francis Ford Coppola‘s taxing 238-day production of “Apocalypse Now” in her documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse,” died Friday at her home in Rutherford, Calif.
She was 87. Coppola’s death was confirmed in a statement by the Coppola family to the Associated Press. A lifelong creative partner to her husband Francis, Eleanor Coppola took up filmmaking during the production of his Vietnam war feature “Apocalypse Now.” A highly anticipated follow-up to “The Godfather: Part II,” the planned five-month Philippines shoot more than doubled in length due to a litany of headaches and complications, including initial star Harvey Keitel’s replacement with Martin Sheen, typhoons wrecking sets, a reworked ending and Sheen’s hospitalization due to a heart attack.
The footage that Eleanor Coppola shot behind the scenes became the 1991 documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse,” released 12 years after “Apocalypse Now” finally made it to theaters and received eight Oscar nominations.
The portrait of an artist in crisis earned an Emmy award plus a DGA nomination for the group’s documentary award. “The beginning of the film idea for me was certainly documenting ‘Apocalypse Now,’” she told Deadline in 2017. “I had no idea.
Read more on variety.com