American Zoetrope

American Zoetrope (also known as Omni Zoetrope from 1977 to 1980 and Zoetrope Studios from 1980 until 1990) is a privately run American film production company, centered in San Francisco, California and founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.

American Zoetrope

Company type	Production company
Industry	Motion pictures Television
Founded	December 12, 1969; 54 years ago (1969-12-12)
Founder	Francis Ford Coppola George Lucas
Headquarters	San Francisco, California , United States
Owner	Francis Ford Coppola Roman Coppola Sofia Coppola
Website	zoetrope.com

Opened on December 12, 1969,^[1] 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 film THX 1138, 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.^[2]

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.

American Zoetrope is located in the Sentinel Building.

History

Initially located in a warehouse at 827^[3][4][5] Folsom Street on the second floor of The Automatt building, the company's headquarters have, since 1972,^[6] 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.^[7] "Zoetrope" is also the name by which Coppola's quarterly fiction magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, is often known.

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.^[8][9]

In 1999, it signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a first-look financing and production agreement.^[10] In 2000, it signed a ten-year financing pact with VCL Film + Medien to handle foreign sales of their own titles.^[11]

By 2007, ownership of American Zoetrope had been passed to Coppola's son and daughter, directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola.^[12]

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.^[13] The only movies from the Coppola canon that won't be released as part of the pact are The Godfather trilogy, which is owned by Paramount.^[14]

Zoetrope.com, the Coppola family's website, was created around 1996 and became an online community for writers. In 2016, Francis Ford Coppola announced its relaunch as a "virtual studio".^[15]

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.^[16]

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Director	Company	Credit	References
1969	The Rain People	Francis Ford Coppola	American Zoetrope	Production company	[17][18]
1971	THX 1138	George Lucas			[17]
1972	The Godfather	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
	Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg		Distributor	[17]
1973	American Graffiti	George Lucas		Production company	[17]
1974	The Conversation	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
	The Godfather Part II	Francis Ford Coppola		Production facilities furnished through (as American Zoetrope San Francisco)	[17]
1977	Perfumed Nightmare	Kidlat Tahimik		Distributor	[17]
	Hitler: A Film from Germany	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg	Omni Zoetrope	Distributor	[17]
1979	Apocalypse Now	Francis Ford Coppola		Production company	[17][19]
	The Black Stallion	Carroll Ballard			[17]
1980	Sauve qui peut (la vie)	Jean-Luc Godard	Zoetrope Studios	Production company/distributor	[17]
	Kagemusha	Akira Kurosawa		Production company	[17]
1982	Parsifal	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg		Distributor	[17]
	The Escape Artist	Caleb Deschanel		Production company	[17]
	Passion	Jean-Luc Godard		Production company/distributor	[17]
	The Grey Fox	Phillip Borsos		Production company	[17]
	Koyaanisqatsi	Godfrey Reggio
	The Making of 'One from the Heart'	Tony St. John
	Hammett	Wim Wenders			[17]
	One from the Heart	Francis Ford Coppola		Production company/distributor	[17]
1983	The Outsiders	Francis Ford Coppola		Production company	[17]
	Rumble Fish	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
	The Black Stallion Returns	Robert Dalva			[17]
1984	The Cotton Club	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
1985	Seven Minutes in Heaven	Linda Feferman
	Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters	Paul Schrader			[17]
1986	Peggy Sue Got Married	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
1987	Tough Guys Don't Dance	Norman Mailer
	Gardens of Stone	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
	Barfly	Barbet Schroeder			[17]
1988	Tucker: The Man and His Dream	Francis Ford Coppola
1989	Wait Until Spring, Bandini	Dominique Deruddere			[17]
1990	The Godfather Part III	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
1991	Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse	Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola, and George Hickenlooper	American Zoetrope		[17]
1992	Bram Stoker's Dracula	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
	Wind	Carroll Ballard			[17]
1993	The Secret Garden	Agnieszka Holland			[17]
1994	Mary Shelley's Frankenstein	Kenneth Branagh			[17]
	Don Juan DeMarco	Jeremy Leven			[17]
1995	Haunted	Lewis Gilbert
	My Family	Gregory Nava			[17]
1996	Jack	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
1997	The Rainmaker	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
	Buddy	Caroline Thompson		Production company (as An American Zoetrope Production)	[17]
1999	The Florentine	Nick Stagliano		Production company
	The Virgin Suicides	Sofia Coppola			[17]
	The Third Miracle	Agnieszka Holland			[17]
	Sleepy Hollow	Tim Burton			[17]
2001	Jeepers Creepers	Victor Salva			[17]
	CQ	Roman Coppola			[17]
	No Such Thing	Hal Hartley			[17]
	Suriyothai	Chatrichalerm Yukol			[17]
2002	Pumpkin	Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder			[17]
	Assassination Tango	Robert Duvall			[17]
2003	Lost in Translation	Sofia Coppola			[17]
	Jeepers Creepers 2	Victor Salva			[17]
2004	Kinsey	Bill Condon		Production company (uncredited)	[17]
2006	Marie Antoinette	Sofia Coppola		Production company	[17]
	The Good Shepherd	Robert De Niro			[17]
2007	Youth Without Youth	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
2009	Tetro	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
2010	Somewhere	Sofia Coppola
2011	Twixt	Francis Ford Coppola			[17]
2012	A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III	Roman Coppola			[17]
	On the Road	Walter Salles			[17]
2013	Palo Alto	Gia Coppola			[17]
	The Bling Ring	Sofia Coppola			[17]
2014	Life After Beth	Jeff Baena			[17]
2015	A Very Murray Christmas	Sofia Coppola			[17]
	Last Days in the Desert	Rodrigo García			[20]
2016	Paris Can Wait	Eleanor Coppola			[17]
	Joshy	Jeff Baena			[17]
2017	The Beguiled	Sofia Coppola			[17]
2020	Love Is Love Is Love	Eleanor Coppola			[21]
	On the Rocks	Sofia Coppola			[22]
2021	Mainstream	Gia Coppola			[23]
2023	Fairyland	Andrew Durham			[24]
	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	[17]
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	[17]
1998–2001	First Wave	Chris Brancato			Sci-Fi Channel	co-production with Sugar Entertainment	[17]
2003	Platinum	John Ridley Sofia Coppola			UPN	co-production with The Greenblatt/Janollari Studio, International Famous Players Radio Picture Corporation and Eye Productions	[25]
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	[17]

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.^[26] 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.

References

1. Fog City Mavericks. Starz, Englewood, CO, USA. June 15, 2011. Television.
2. "Francis Ford Coppola". UCLA School of TFT. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
3. Howell, Daedalus (January 31, 2013). "American Zoetrope: 827 Folsom, San Francisco". Daedalus Howell. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
4. oneperfectshot. "[WATCH] The Rise and Revolution of American Zoetrope and New Hollywood". Twitter. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
5. Connelly, Sherilyn (October 24, 2011). "The City's First Dot-Com, 1969: George Lucas and Francis Coppola's American Zoetrope". SF Weekly. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
6. "American Zoetrope: Films". www.zoetrope.com. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
7. Exclusive Interview: Coppola Archivist James Mockoski, retrieved June 14, 2023
8. "Forerunner to Dreamworks, Coppola's risky Zoetrope Studios bucked system". Variety. November 11, 1997. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
9. Hellerman, Jason (October 26, 2020). "How Did Coppola's American Zoetrope Almost Change Hollywood?". No Film School. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
10. Higgins, Bill (June 4, 1999). "MGM-Coppola deal shifts". Variety. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
11. Dawtrey, Adam; Harris, Dana (May 16, 2000). "Zoetrope, VCL pact". Variety. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
12. Coppola stated this in an interview with Harry Knowles for Ain't It Cool News published on May 8, 2007.
13. "Lionsgate, Zoetrope ink distribution deal | THR". The Hollywood Reporter. July 26, 2010.
14. "Lionsgate Distributing Coppola Classics on DVD, Blu-ray | THR". July 26, 2010.
15. "Francis Ford Coppola Re-Launches Virtual Studio Zoetrope | Brent Land | The Wrap". July 26, 2010.
16. Paulson, Michael (June 17, 2024). "'The Outsiders,' a Broadway Adaptation of the Classic Novel, Wins the Tony for Best Musical". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 4, 2024.
17. "American Zoetrope: Films", zoetrope.com. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
18. American Zoetrope [us]
19. Zoetrope Studios [us]
20. "Last Days in the Desert". Cinefex. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
21. Goldsmith, Jill (March 3, 2020). "Tribeca Sets Feature Lineup Of Films For 2020 Fest". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
22. D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 15, 2019). "Sofia Coppola And Bill Murray To Reteam For 'On The Rocks', Apple & A24's First Film". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
23. McNary, Dave (October 30, 2018). "Film News Roundup: Andrew Garfield Joins Gia Coppola's Romance Movie 'Mainstream'". Variety. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
24. Vlessing, Etan (June 6, 2022). "Emilia Jones, Scoot McNairy Star in 'Fairyland' Adaptation for American Zoetrope". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
25. Stanley, Alessandra (April 14, 2003). "TELEVISION REVIEW; 'Dynasty,' with a Hip-Hop Beat". The New York Times.
26. "Cafe Zoetrope". Archived from the original on May 25, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2012.

External links

• Official website