Francis Ford Coppola to begin new film in October

NEW YORK - After an eight-year absence, Francis Ford Coppola is returning to the director's chair.

He will begin filming "Youth Without Youth" in Romania on Oct. 3. Starring Tim Roth, the film is adapted from a novella by Romanian philosopher-author Mircea Eliade.

"It's a parable, it's a fable. It's almost like an intellectual 'Twilight Zone,'" the "Godfather" director told The Associated Press by phone Friday, speaking from Romania. "In a way it's like a Hitchcock picture and Tim Roth is the Jimmy Stewart - the guy who gets caught up in something fascinating and big."

The film takes place right before World War II and chronicles how a professor's life is altered after an "extraordinary change" late in his life, which leads to Nazi interest in studying him.

It will be Coppola's first movie since 1997's "The Rainmaker." In recent years, he's concentrated on new versions of past works, including "Apocalypse Now Redux" and, more recently, "The Outsiders: The Whole Novel." And he's been working on a screenplay about New York in the future titled "Megalopolis" for more than two decades.

Coppola, a five-time Oscar winner, said a friend recommended "Youth Without Youth," saying it had similar themes to "Megalopolis." Soon, Coppola was fascinated and wrote a screenplay.

"I see this all as steps on the path to something," Coppola said. "Maybe I'll be more qualified to do 'Megalopolis' if I really digest this film. In a sense, I think a movie is really a little like a question and when you make it, that's when you get the answer."

Already immersed in preproduction, Coppola feels a "pleasant, stage-fright kind of nervous" about his directing return. Anticipating a release date of late 2006 or spring 2007, he envisions "Youth Without Youth" as a return to his roots in personal filmmaking - before "The Godfather" set him on a path of big studio projects.

"I just feel that at a certain point you have to go back to the beginning again," the 66-year-old director said. "The best thing for me at this point in my life is to become a student again and make movies with the eyes I had when I was enthusiastic about it in the first place."