A young woman coming of age, the culture of celebrity and art…. it’s all very familiar territory for Sofia Coppola so perhaps it’s no surprise she’s gravitating to a new gig with just those elements.
Her Dad’s American Zoetrope production has snapped up the rights to Alysia Abbott‘s "Fairyland: A Memoir Of My Father," with Coppola co-writing the script with Andrew Durham (who produced her debut short "Lick The Star"), and co-producing with Roman Coppola. Published this past the summer, the book is true account of daughter and her bisexual father in San Francisco, their relationship and the onset of the AIDS crisis. Here’s the Amazon synopsis of the book:
After his wife dies in a car accident, bisexual writer and activist Steve Abbott moves in with his two-year-old daughter to San Francisco. There they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation—few of whom are raising a child.
Steve throws himself into San Francisco’s vibrant cultural scene. He takes Alysia to raucous parties, pushes her in front of the microphone at poetry readings, and introduces her to a world of artists, thinkers, and writers. But the pair live like nomads, moving from apartment to apartment, with a revolving cast of roommates and little structure. As a child Alysia views her father as a loving playmate who can transform the ordinary into magic, but as she gets older Alysia wants more than anything to fit in. The world, she learns, is hostile to difference.
In Alysia’s teens, Steve’s friends—several of whom she has befriended—fall ill as AIDS starts its rampage through their community. While Alysia is studying in New York and then in France, her father tells her it’s time to come home; he’s sick with AIDS. Alysia must choose whether to take on the responsibility of caring for her father or continue the independent life she has worked so hard to create.
Just to be clear, Coppola isn’t officially signed to direct, though it should also be noted she’s never written a script (yet) that she didn’t eventually helm. And again, this material sounds like it’s right in her wheelhouse, though with dramatic elements that might be the answer to critics who’ve demanded more substance from the filmmaker.
