We’re yet to see Sofia Coppola create a TV show of her own, and it turns out she once came very, very close. The acclaimed director recently revealed she was plotting the adaptation of The Custom of the Country starring Florence Pugh until Apple TV+ decided to pull the funding.
Coppola recently set down with The New Yorker for an in-depth interview, and one of the topics she discussed with the magazine was her struggle to fund her films. One of her projects that fell apart due to lack of money was the adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country starring the Oscar nominee Florence Pugh.
She was plotting this series with Apple TV+, after directing the dramedy On the Rocks for the streamer, but the project eventually fell through because they didn’t understand her vision.
“They pulled our funding. It’s a real drag. I thought they had endless resources… They didn’t get the character of Undine. She’s so ‘unlikable.’ But so is Tony Soprano!… It was like a relationship that you know you probably should’ve gotten out of a while ago,” said Coppola.
The five-episode series was supposed to center on Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl trying to rise through the ranks of New York City society, and Coppola described it as “five Marie Antoinettes” in terms of scope and budget.
