Sofia Coppola is giving us more details about her unrealized adaptation of Edith Wharton’s “The Custom of the Country,” which she was developing as a five-episode series for Apple TV+.
In an interview with The New Yorker, it’s being revealed, for the first time, that Coppola had cast Florence Pugh to star in the lead role of Undine Spragg, a girl who strives to ascend in New York’s socialite society.
Coppola’s ‘Custom’ was announced in May 2020, but by the end of 2021, the project was nixed. “They pulled our funding,” Coppola said. “It’s a real drag. I thought they had endless resources.”
Coppola further explains that she planned for “Custom” to be “five ‘Marie Antoinettes,” referring to her 2006 film, which cost $45 million to make.
“They didn’t get the character of Undine,” Coppola said of Apple executives, who she described as “mostly dudes.” “She’s so ‘unlikable.’ But so is Tony Soprano! … It was like a relationship that you know you probably should’ve gotten out of a while ago.”
Coppola previously told The New York Times that her five-hour adaptation was nixed by Apple because they hated “the idea of an unlikable woman,” adding “it wasn’t their thing […] that’s what I’m saying about who’s in charge.”
“The people in charge of giving money are usually straight men, still,” she said in her Times interview. “There’s always people in lower levels who are like myself, but then the bosses have a certain sensibility … If it’s so hard for me to get financing as an established person, I worry about younger women starting out. It’s surprising that it’s still a struggle.”
She sounds pissed off that Apple backed out of the project. I understand her frustration, but at the end of the day, they make the calls and a $200 million Wharton adaptation sounds like a risky proposition for any producer to make.
It’s been seven years since Alma Har’el’s feature debut, “Honey Boy,” which was written by and starred Shia LaBeouf — she is now set to direct her next film, with a very talented cast.