UPDATE: Some additional details about this one, courtesy of Dunst’s interview with Vogue: it’s a period piece set in the U.S. and focuses on a “real person,” though not one who is widely known.
EARLIER: Last December, Sofia Coppola was telling Vogue that she’d started writing her next film, and that she’d be working on it for most of 2025. The script is still in the “very early stages,” but that she’s “excited” to see where it goes.
Seems like things are revving up on this one as Kirsten Dunst, a frequent Coppola collaborator, has hopped on-board the project, that’s what she’s telling Town and Country.
The plan is to shoot the film next year. No plot details or further casting were revealed in the interview.
Dunst and Coppola have built one of the more enduring actor-director partnerships of modern American cinema. Their collaboration began with “The Virgin Suicides” (1999), when Coppola cast a then-teenage Dunst. They reunited in “Marie Antoinette” (2006), with Dunst embodying Coppola’s vision of the young queen, and later in “The Beguiled” (2017), a remake of Clint Eastwood’s 1971 film.
Coppola is coming off “Priscilla,” a well-reviewed minimalist biopic of Elvis’ future wife, starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi. It was her eighth feature. Her notable works include “Lost in Translation,” “The Virgin Suicides,” “Marie Antoinette” and “Somewhere.”
Sadly, she still hasn’t topped “Lost in Translation,” the film around which she has since built her career. There’s something to like in every one of the eight films Coppola has directed, but I don’t believe she has ever again reached the heights of that film, released more than 20 years ago.
Coppola’s “auteur” stamp lies in crafting picturesque arthouse, girl-coming-of-age dramas.