Lost
in Toronto: "I had my entire family here, and
we all knew this for two weeks. I went to their films, and
I went to their parties to support them. They're gone, and
my film screens tonight. Why is that?" Christopher
Coppola says, taking a sip of espresso and flashing a devilish
grin. "I think it's because they are scared of me."
Cutting an imposing figure — topped off by a pale
bald pate and jet-black goatee — the relatively unknown
Coppola is talking about his role in the famous Coppola
clan the same week the first family of film hit the Toronto
International Film Festival en masse for Sofia Coppola's
"Lost in Translation" and "Matchstick Men,"
starring brother Nicolas Cage, both official selections
at this year's fest. "Bloodhead," the film the
other Coppolas chose to miss, is Christopher Coppola's "homage
to the drive-in movie" that tells of twins of different
races who must battle an evil occult sect and stars a cast
a network might have killed for in the mid-1970s: Lynda
Carter, Bernie Kopell, Shiriey Jones and Frank Gorshin all
appear. Describing himself as "Barnum-esque" and
clearly having a good time as the enfant terrible, Coppola
isn't planning on relinquishing his status anytime soon
as the "bad boy" of the bunch. "People tell
me, 'You're the maverick; you're the bad boy.' I'm the pimple
on the otherwise perfect skin. So my idea is, 'OK, I'll
embrace that.' And I've got the shoulders to keep going."
His next project is a "biker Macbeth," a "heavy-metal
rock opera" blending shock absorbers and Shakespeare
that he will shoot in New Mexico. But the director of "G-Men
From Hell" and "Dracula's Widow" also has
a softer side: His dream is to shoot a script he wrote for
"The Black Stallion 3."