The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story

"Sam Wasson's supremely entertaining book tracks the ups and downs, ins and outs, of a remarkable career. . . . A marvel of unshowy reportage."--New York Times The New York Times bestselling author of Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. and The Big Goodbye returns with the definitive account of Academy Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola's decades-long dream to reinvent American filmmaking, if not the entire world, through his production company, American Zoetrope. Francis Ford Coppola is one of the great American dreamers, and his most magnificent dream is American Zoetrope, the production company he founded in San Francisco years before his gargantuan success, when he was only thirty. Through Zoetrope's experimental, communal utopia, Coppola attempted to reimagine the entire pursuit of moviemaking. Now, more than fifty years later, despite myriad setbacks, the visionary filmmaker's dream persists, most notably in the production of his decades-in-the-making film and the culmination of his utopian ideals, Megalopolis. As Wasson makes clear, the story of Zoetrope is also the story of Coppola's wife, Eleanor Coppola, and their children, and of personal lives inseparable from artistic passion. It is a story that charts the divergent paths of Coppola and his cofounder and onetime apprentice, George Lucas, and of their very different visions of art and commerce. And it is a story inextricably bound up in the making of one of the greatest quixotic masterpieces ever attempted, Apocalypse Now, and in what Coppola found in the jungles of the Philippines when he walked the razor's edge. That story, already the stuff of legend, has never fully been told, until this extraordinary book.

About the Author :
Sam Wasson is the author of seven books on film, including the New York Times bestsellers Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern American Woman; The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood; and Fosse. With Jeanine Basinger, he is the coauthor of Hollywood: The Oral History. He lives in Los Angeles.

Review :
"A vivid biography of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and his production company, American Zoetrope . . . . A memorable portrait of an artist who has changed the cinematic landscape and whose work will endure." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "This new book by Sam Wasson (who already proved himself one of the great modern chroniclers of the New Hollywood era with the Chinatown making-of story The Big Goodbye) chronicles the road to heaven Coppola trod after descending to Hell with Apocalypse Now. The Vietnam War epic is already the subject of much reporting, but Wasson boasts unprecedented access to Coppola's personal archive--as well as a first-hand look at the making of a movie we can't wait to see." - Entertainment Weekly "A gripping new book . . . vividly chronicling how the director leveraged his two great movies into an assembly line of cinema." - Deadline "Enthralling . . . . A complex portrait of an artist whose unwillingness to compromise cost him dearly. Movie buffs won't want to miss this." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Wasson creates a portrait of one man's vast artistic ambition--one that (to this reader, anyway) portrays Coppola as a kind of precursor to the tech moguls who would take San Francisco as their base of operations decades after Coppola did so . . . . An insightful book that takes stock of Coppola's importance to film history and creates a vibrant portrait of a restless artist constantly on the move." - InsideHook "A meticulous portrait of a daring artist who risked his career to establish a studio of his own." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker "The Path to Paradise puts you there, and shows how Coppola got so close to the sun . . . . Wasson captures the extreme ups and downs with a combination of precision and imagination, often bringing an appropriately gonzo tone to the story." - Los Angeles Times "Wasson's getting pretty good at this, isn't he? After entertaining us to no end in behind-the-scenes treats such as Fifth Avenue, Five A.M. and The Big Goodbye--not to mention a massive Bob Fosse bio, and a fine oral history of Hollywood, co-authored with the great Jeanine Basinger--we get this: an inside look at Francis Ford Coppola and his independent studio, Zoetrope. With great access to Coppola, Wasson gives us a portrait of one of our most important directors just as Coppola continues production for Megalopolis, his longest and perhaps greatest cinematic obsession. This book is a movie-lover's feast." - Esquire "Before now, writing a biography of Francis Ford Coppola has been like aiming at a moving target. . . . Wasson . . . has deftly judged the moment. . . . The effect is like movie cross-cutting, vivid with changing event and contrast. . . . That Coppola saw further than others into the future of film is argued persuasively." - Financial Times "Sam Wasson's supremely entertaining new book, The Path to Paradise, tracks the ups and downs, ins and outs, of a remarkable career. . . . A marvel of unshowy reportage." - New York Times "Sam Wasson tells the story of a true dreamer and the price he has paid for his greatest dreams." - Boston Globe "A bold new book . . . . Wasson's one of the best at writing about the lives of artists." - CBS Saturday Morning "Richly detailed." - Library Journal