BY LEE PFEIFFER
You can't browse the web or pick up a magazine lately without encountering an interview with Francis Ford Coppola. With the 50th anniversary of "The Godfather" at hand, he's very much back in the spotlight after keeping a low profile for many years. Coppola, as we all know, we elevated from relative obscurity to international acclaim on the basis of "The Godfather" despite the fact that Paramount had little confidence in the film and didn't care for Coppola's artistic vision, which was most definitely not the boilerplate gangster flick the studio had in mind. The film won the Best Picture Oscar and became the highest grossing movie in history. Two years later, Coppola had a dual triumph with the release of "The Conversation" and "The Godfather Part II", another film he wasn't initially keen on being involved with. It made Hollywood history by being the first sequel to also win the Best Picture Oscar. Despite his new-found clout, Coppola had no takers when it came to his next visionary project, "Apocalypse Now", which was too bizarre in concept and execution for major studios to gamble on. So he financed it himself, hocking everything he had. The ordeal of making the film almost killed him but he triumphed in the end and now owns the rights to the movie. Now, in a fascinating and insightful interview with Zach Baron of GQ, Coppola discusses his plans for the future. The fact that he's 82 years-old hasn't diminished his passion for film making. He's slimmed down because he doesn't see many obese people still alive at his age. He's still determined to bring his next dream project to the big screen, a production titled "Megalopolis", which Coppola estimates will cost $120 million. Because the concept is so complex, Coppola cannot even satisfactorily describe it to Baron, but he's going to finance it himself because he knows no studio will put the funding up. Coppola lost $26 million on his beloved musical flop, "One from the Heart"- and that was in early 1980s dollars. It's inspiring to see that his determination to bring a dream to reality has not diminished. Click here to read the interview.