Sofia Coppola Returns with The Beguiled, Starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst

Sofia Coppola is one of the most interesting filmmakers working today. Even her so-called misses are better than most. Look at how Marie Antoinette, for instance, has become so popular since the critics gave it a thrashing. I suspect, one day, viewers will catch up to the Bling Ring, which was actually quite good. Though her best, most people would say, was Lost in Translation, she is not afraid to dwell in different styles and themes. The Beguiled, released by Focus Features, will star Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst and will be released June 23, 2017. That tells me there is a good chance it will be going to Cannes, like the Bling Ring did, and will be seen in May-ish. That’s not yet been announced, but the dates make sense.

Coppola focuses nearly all of her films on women, or women in relation to the men in their lives but always from their perspective, or a shared perspective. Here, the story takes place in a girls’ school in Virginia in 1864 during the Civil War. A wounded soldier is taken in by a Seminary for sheltered “young ladies.” Hilarity ensues. No, not really. Not at all. Can’t wait!

LOS ANGELES, November 2nd, 2016 – Production has begun in Louisiana on writer/director Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, which reteams the filmmaker with Focus Features. Focus holds worldwide rights to the film as part of the company’s renewed global initiative. Focus will release The Beguiled domestically in select cities on June 23rd, 2017 in the U.S., with an expansion on June 30th, 2017; and Universal Pictures International (UPI) will distribute the film globally, beginning in the summer of 2017.

Ms. Coppola’s screenplay is an adaptation of Thomas Cullinan’s novel of the same name. Golden Globe Award winner Colin Farrell (Focus’ In Bruges), Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman (The Hours), Emmy Award nominee Kirsten Dunst (making her fourth movie with Ms. Coppola), and Critics’ Choice Award nominee Elle Fanning (making her second movie with Ms. Coppola) lead the cast of The Beguiled.

The Beguiled unfolds in a girls’ school in the state of Virginia in 1864. As the Civil War rages, The Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies has been sheltered from the outside world— until the day a wounded Union soldier is discovered nearby and taken in.

Oona Laurence (who starred on Broadway in Matilda and on-screen in Pete’s Dragon, Bad Moms, and Southpaw) and Emma Howard (Transparent) have joined the cast with Angourie Rice (The Nice Guys) and Addison Riecke (The Thundermans).

Anne Ross is production designer on The Beguiled, marking her fifth collaboration with Ms. Coppola. The film’s costume designer is Stacey Battat, marking her fourth collaboration with Ms. Coppola. The director of photography on The Beguiled is Academy Award nominee Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster), and the movie is being shot on 35mm film.

Ms. Coppola’s previous movies with Focus as writer/director and producer were Lost in Translation, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and was additionally nominated in the Best Picture and Best Director Oscar categories; and Somewhere, starring Ms. Fanning, which won the Golden Lion Award at the 2010 Venice International Film Festival.

Focus chairman Peter Kujawski commented, “It is personally and professionally a pleasure to be making a movie with Sofia Coppola again. The twisted turns of the story, combined with Sofia’s empathy for the characters being portrayed by these gifted actors, will keep audiences in suspense. Everyone at Focus is thrilled to be bringing The Beguiled to theaters next summer.”