David Farnor | On 24, Jan 2024

Sofia Coppola has spoken out about Apple’s decision to cancel The Custom of the Country.

The project was first announced back in May 2020 and is an adaptation of Edith Warton’s 1913 novel. The book is a scathing story of ambition featuring one of the most ruthless heroines in literature: Undine Spragg, who’s as unscrupulous as she is magnetically beautiful. Her rise to the top of New York’s high society from the nouveau riche provides a provocative commentary on the upwardly mobile and the aspirations that eventually cause their ruin. Florence Pugh was attached the star in the five-episode series.

Considered inspiration for Downton Abbey, the book’s translation to the screen seemed like a good fit for the Marie Antoinette director, who – before she worked on Priscilla – worked with Apple TV+ on On the Rocks, starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones.

However, Apple pulled the plug on the project last year and Coppola has now spoken about the cancellation and given some insight into the decision. In an excellent in-depth interview with The New Yorker, she said that the move was a “real drag” and that she had gone back and forth on the project with the executives, who were “mostly dudes”.

“They didn’t get the character of Undine,” she explained. “She’s so ‘unlikeable’. But so is Tony Soprano! It was like a relationship that you know you probably should’ve gotten out of a while ago.”

At the start of 2022, Coppola moved on to Priscilla after failing to secure alternative funding for the series.

 

Sofia Coppola adapting The Custom of the Country for Apple TV+

26th May 2020

Sofia Coppola is returning to Apple TV+ for her next project, an adaptation of The Custom of the Country.

First published in 1913, Edith Wharton’s novel is a scathing story of ambition featuring one of the most ruthless heroines in literature. Undine Spragg is as unscrupulous as she is magnetically beautiful. Her rise to the top of New York’s high society from the nouveau riche provides a provocative commentary on the upwardly mobile and the aspirations that eventually cause their ruin.

Considered inspiration for Downton Abbey, it’s a story that sounds like a natural fit for Coppola, whose career to date has ranged from Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides to The Bling Ring and Marie Antoinette. She is currently working with Apple TV+ to develop the novel for a TV series.

The project marks a reunion for the pair, after she directed the film On the Rocks, starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, for the tech giant’s fledgling streaming service. A limited series is the end goal, with Coppola writing and directing.

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