Buenos Aires: the new New York for Coppola

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Sightings of Francis Ford Coppola with black beret and flowing green scarf have been reported in the trendier precincts of Buenos Aires.

The renowned director is in town during the chilly southern hemisphere autumn preparing for his latest project, Tetro, an autobiographical saga about an artistic family descendent from Italian immigrants (not unlike Coppola’s).

Buenos Aires, with its vast Italian immigrant heritage, will substitute for Coppola’s native New York.

The film, scheduled to be shot in Buenos Aires and environs next year, stars Matt Dillon, who collaborated with Coppola in the 1980s films The Outsiders and Rumble Fish.

The Argentina press reported that the Spanish actor Javier Bardem will co-star, while Coppola was contemplating local casting for a female lead.

The legendary director of The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and The Conversation is said to have purchased a two-story boutique hotel in the upscale Palermo district, reportedly as a base for a new Zoetrope Argentina to oversee the Tetro production. Meantime, the noted vinter and bon vivant can sample the capital’s gastronomic delights.

Posted by Patrick J. McDonnell and Andrés D’Alessandro in Buenos Aires