Pacific Tote Company

Roman Coppola
Born	(1965-04-22) April 22, 1965
Occupation(s)	Filmmaker, director
Known for	Music videos, collaborations with Wes Anderson
Notable work	CQ, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch

Roman François Coppola (born April 22, 1965) is an American filmmaker and director specializing in music videos. He is the son of Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola, and is notably recognized for his collaborative work with director Wes Anderson.

Coppola holds the position of president at the film production company American Zoetrope. Additionally, he established and owns The Directors Bureau, a company focused on producing commercials and music videos.

Early life

Born to filmmaker, artist, and writer Eleanor Coppola (née Neil) and director Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Coppola grew up immersed in a creative environment.

In 1988, he partnered with his sister Sofia Coppola to launch the production company Commercial Pictures, supported financially by American Zoetrope. Under this banner, he produced three films: Clownhouse, The Spirit of '76, and Ballad of a Gunfighter.

Career

Roman Coppola began his directing journey by managing in-camera visual effects and second unit direction on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which received a BAFTA nomination for Visual Effects. Throughout his career, he has continued contributing as second unit director on several projects including his father’s films Jack, The Rainmaker, Youth Without Youth, Tetro, and Megalopolis; Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited; as well as his sister Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette.

In the 1990s, Coppola gained prominence as a director of music videos and commercials. His production company, The Directors Bureau, oversaw all four music videos for The Strokes’ debut album Is This It released in 2001, in addition to directing the video for "12:51" from their album Room on Fire. His portfolio also includes music videos for artists such as Daft Punk, Lilys, Moby, The Presidents of the United States of America, Ween, Green Day, and Fatboy Slim. Notably, his video for Phoenix's "Funky Squaredance" was inducted into the permanent collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He has also supported his cousin Jason Schwartzman’s musical project Coconut Records.

In 1997, he directed a commercial for Levi's White Tab.

His debut feature film, CQ, premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival to positive critical reception. Set in Paris during 1969, the story follows a young film editor balancing personal relationships with his professional ambitions while navigating a science fiction narrative alongside his own art film. The movie holds a 66% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 76 critiques, with consensus noting it as "a stylish and enjoyable tribute to campy 1960s cinema." On Metacritic, it earned a score of 56 out of 100 from 26 reviews, indicating mixed or average feedback.

Coppola’s second feature, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, premiered at the Rome Film Festival in 2012. The film stars Charlie Sheen as a graphic designer coping with a breakup, alongside performances by Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. Critical response was largely unfavorable: Nathan Rabin from The A.V. Club assigned it an F grade, describing it as lacking substance despite polished packaging. The Dallas Observer criticized it as a disjointed effort likened to haphazardly throwing ideas together. The New York Daily News rated it one star out of five, suggesting viewers might want to dismiss it outright. Meanwhile, Time commented that while the film did not provide deeper insight into Charlie Sheen, it underscored his pattern of poor decisions. In contrast, Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly offered a more moderate C rating, acknowledging its charm but criticizing its self-indulgent execution filled with fantasy sequences and elaborate design elements.

In 2009, he directed commercials promoting the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G smartphone series.

By 2015, Coppola had directed an advertisement for State Farm Insurance.

In 2018, he co-wrote the story for Wes Anderson’s adult stop-motion animated science fiction drama Isle of Dogs. The film was widely praised for its animation quality, narrative depth, musical composition, and dry humor. Richard Roeper from the Chicago Sun-Times awarded it three and a half out of four stars, highlighting its originality and subtle humor.

In 2021, Coppola reunited creatively with Wes Anderson on The French Dispatch, contributing as co-story writer and executive producer. The film garnered generally favorable reviews; David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter commended its meticulously crafted visuals and eccentric performances while noting that despite its vignette-style structure lacking a dominant theme, Anderson’s affection for literature and quirky characters shines throughout. Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian described it as an enjoyable experience filled with humor and charm. The movie was featured prominently in several year-end best-of lists including those by The New Yorker (#1), The Forward (top pick), IndieWire (#6), Esquire (#38), New Musical Express (#11), the British Film Institute (#23), and mentioned by editors at Vogue.'

Directors Bureau special projects

In addition to his filmmaking career, Coppola is an innovator and businessperson, founding ventures such as the Photobubble Company and Pacific Tote Company. He also oversees various initiatives under the "Special Projects" division of his production entity, Directors Bureau.

Pacific Tote Company, one of his enterprises, offers a collection of handcrafted beach bags made in California, distinguished by their vibrant, multicolored patterns.

Feature films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1983	Rumble Fish	No	No	Template:Partial
1989	Clownhouse	No	No	Template:Partial
1990	The Spirit of '76	No	Template:Partial	Template:Partial
2001	CQ	Yes	Yes	No
2007	The Darjeeling Limited	No	Yes	Yes	Co-writer alongside Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman
2010	Somewhere	No	No	Yes
2012	Moonrise Kingdom	No	Yes	No	Co-written with Wes Anderson
	On the Road	No	No	Yes
	A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III	Yes	Yes	Yes
2013	The Bling Ring	No	No	Yes
2017	The Beguiled	No	No	Yes
2018	Isle of Dogs	No	Template:Partial	No	Story developed with Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura
2020	On the Rocks	No	No	Template:Partial
2021	The French Dispatch	No	Template:Partial	Template:Partial	Story collaboration with Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness, and Jason Schwartzman
2022	The Seven Faces of Jane	No	No	Yes
2023	Fairyland	No	No	Template:Partial
	Asteroid City	No	Template:Partial	Template:Partial	Story co-created with Wes Anderson
2025	The Phoenician Scheme	No	Template:Partial	Template:Partial	Story developed with Wes Anderson

Additional Directing Contributions

Year	Title	Second Unit	Other	Director
1992	Bram Stoker's Dracula	Yes	Template:Partial	Francis Ford Coppola
1996	Jack	Yes	No
1997	The Rainmaker	Yes	No
1999	The Virgin Suicides	Yes	No	Sofia Coppola
2003	Lost in Translation	No	Template:Partial
2004	The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou	Yes	No	Wes Anderson
2006	Marie Antoinette	Yes	No	Sofia Coppola
2007	The Darjeeling Limited	Yes	No	Wes Anderson
	Youth Without Youth	Yes	No	Francis Ford Coppola
2009	Tetro	Yes	No
2014	The Grand Budapest Hotel	No	Template:Partial	Wes Anderson
2023	Priscilla	Yes	No	Sofia Coppola
2024	Megalopolis	Yes	No	Francis Ford Coppola

Acting Roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	You're a Big Boy Now	Infant in carriage	Uncredited appearances
1972	' 'The Godfather	' Child on street attending funeral'
1974'	' 'The Godfather Part II	' Young Sonny Corleone'
1979'	' 'Apocalypse Now	' Francis de Marais'	' Only in Redux edition'
1999'	' Gunfighter'	' Bandido'
	' 'Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace	' Senate Guard'	' Uncredited'
2009'	' 'Fantastic Mr. Fox	' Squirrel Contractor'	' Voice role'
2018'	' 'Isle of Dogs	' Igor'

Television

Year	Title	Director	Executive producer	Writer	Notes
2002'	' '$2 Bill	Yes'	No'	No'	' Episode: "The Strokes"'
2013'	' 'Arcade Fire in Here Comes the Night Time	Yes'	No'	No'	' Television special'
2014–2018'	' 'Mozart in the Jungle	Yes'	Yes'	Yes'	' '
2015'	' 'A Very Murray Christmas	' Template:Partial'	Yes'	No'	' Television special'
2020'	' 'Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special	Yes'	Yes'	No'	" Co-directed alongside Hamish Hamilton; Television special"

Short films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Additional role(s)	Remarks
1996	Bed, Bath and Beyond	No	No	No	Actor, cinematographer
1999	Torrance Rises	No	No	No	Cinematographer
2011	Fight for Your Right Revisited	No	No	No	Actor	Role: Café Patron
2012	¡El Tonto	No	No	Yes
	Modern/Love	No	No	Yes
	The Mirror Between Us	No	No	Yes
	Eugene	No	No	Template:Partial
	Die Again, Undead One	Yes	Yes	Yes
2013	Castello Cavalcanti	No	No	Yes
2016	Mommeostasis	Yes	No	No		Commercial created for Progressive Corporation
2023	"(The) Swan"	No	No	No	Cinematographer

Music videos

Year	Artist	Song
1994	Nancy Boy	"Deep Sleep Motel"
	Ween	"Voodoo Lady"
	P.M. Dawn	"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"
style="text-align:center;" rowspan=5 |1995	Butterglory	"She's Got the Akshun"
Love Battery	"Harold's Pink Room"
The Presidents of the United States of America	"Lump" (Version #1) / "Kitty"
Matthew Sweet	"Sick of Myself" / "We're the Same"
Mike Watt & Evan Dando	"Piss-Bottle Man"
style="text-align:center;" rowspan=4 |1996	Green Day	"Walking Contradiction"
Mansun	"Taxloss"
The Presidents of the United States of America	"Lump" (Version #2) / "Peaches" / "Dune Buggy" / "Mach 5"
The Rentals	"Waiting"
style="text-align:center;" |1997	Wyclef Jean and The Refugee All-Stars featuring John Forté and Pras	"We Trying to Stay Alive"
style="text-align:center;" rowspan=5 |1998	God Lives Underwater	"From Your Mouth"
Cassius	"Foxxy"
Daft Punk	"Revolution 909"
Fatboy Slim	"Gangster Tripping"
Moby	"Honey"
style="text-align:center;" rowspan=2 |1999	Cassius	"La Mouche"
Supergrass	"We Still Need More (Than Anyone Can Give)"
style="text-align:center;" rowspan=3 |2000	Air	"Playground Love"
Phoenix	"Funky Squaredance"
Mellow	"Another Mellow Winter"
style="text-align:center;" |2001	The Strokes	"Last Nite" (Version #2)
style="text-align:center;" rowspan=4 |2002	Marianne Faithfull	"Sex with Strangers"
Phantom Planet	"California"
The Strokes	"The Modern Age" / "Hard to Explain" (Version #2) / "Someday"
The Vines	"Get Free"
, style="text-align:center;" rowspan=2 |2003	, Ima Robot,	"Dynomite",	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, , ,	, [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ Commercial and Marketing Videos Year Title Director Writer Remarks 1997 Levi's White Tab: Daytrippers Yes No 2004 Burger King: Ugoff Yes No 2009 T-Mobile: Icons, Comedians, Musicians Yes No A series of advertisements promoting the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G smartphone line 2010 Stella Artois: Apartomatic Yes No Jointly directed with Wes Anderson 2012 Cousin Ben Troop Screening featuring Jason Schwartzman No Yes Promotional short film for Moonrise Kingdom; co-written with Wes Anderson 2013 Prada: Candy Yes No Co-directed alongside Wes Anderson 2015 Magic Jingle Elvis Yes No Commercial produced for State Farm 2017 L'Oréal Paris Yes No Advertisement for L'Oréal Paris's Elvive haircare collection Awards and Recognitions In 2019, Coppola received an invitation to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Organization Year Award Category Work Nominated Outcome Reference(s) Academy Awards 2013 Best Original Screenplay (Shared credit with Wes Anderson) Moonrise Kingdom Template:Nom BAFTA Awards 1994 Best Special Effects ((Shared with Gary Gutierrez, Michael Lantieri, and Gene Warren Jr.Template:Small)) Bram Stoker's Dracula Template:Nom Grammy Awards 1997 Best Music Video, Short Form "Walking Contradiction" Template:Nom New York Film Critics Online 2007 Best Screenplay ((Shared with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman)) The Darjeeling Limited Template:Won Rome Film Festival 2012 Golden Marc'Aurelio Award A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III Template:Nom References External links Roman Coppola Studio The Directors Bureau The Directors Bureau Special Projects Pacific Tote Company at IMDb Biography and credits at Hollywood.com at archive.today (archived 2013-01-03) Interview with Roman Coppola on The Darjeeling Limited