Thieves steal new Coppola script

By Daniel Schweimler
BBC News, Buenos Aires

Journalists surrounded the house in upmarket Palermo

Thieves in Argentina have stolen a computer from US film director Francis Ford Coppola, which contained the script for his new production.

It was reported that five armed robbers raided Coppola's house in a wealthy neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, and took computers and camera equipment.

Saved on one of the computers was the script and pre-production work for his forthcoming film, Tetro.

The Oscar-winning Godfather director was not home at the time.

However, the raiders hit and threatened a person who was in the house, in the fashionable Palermo neighbourhood.

A spokeswoman for Coppola offered a reward for the return of the computer, which she said was vital to him and his work.

Tetro, which will star Matt Dillon, is about the rivalries over the generations in an artistic Italian immigrant family to Buenos Aires.

Filming is due to start next February.

Coppola has been living in Buenos Aires for several months

Five-time Oscar winner Coppola is reported to be "very sad".

The maker of the Godfather trilogy and Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now, has been living in Buenos Aires for several months, learning Spanish and working on his next film.

He is occasionally seen in public attending football matches.

But he is not the first high-profile American to fall victim to Buenos Aires' thieves.

US President George W Bush's daughter Barbara had her handbag and mobile phone stolen last year, despite the protection of US Secret Service agents.

Rome line-up

Meanwhile, Coppola's first film since Rainmaker in 1997 will be premiered at the second annual RomeFilmFest next month.

Youth Without Youth stars Tim Roth as a professor who becomes a fugitive as World War II looms ahead.

Other premieres showing at the festival include Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age, starring Cate Blanchett, who reprises her role as the famous English Queen after 1998's Elizabeth.

Robert Redford unveils a star-studded cast in Lions for Lambs, starring himself, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep.

Sean Penn's Into the Wild, about a road trip to Alaska, will also be screened.

RomeFilmFest takes place between 18 and 27 October.