Coppola makes long-awaited return

Francis Ford Coppola has announced that he will direct his first movie in eight years.

Coppola has not been in the director's chair since 1997, when he made The Rainmaker, which starred Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes and Jon Voight.

He will direct the adaptation of Romanian author Mircea Eliade's novel, Youth Without Youth, much of which is expected to be filmed in Bucharest.

Coppola said in a statement: "I was excited to discover, in this tale by Eliade, the key themes that I most hope to understand better: time, consciousness and the dreamlike basis of reality.

"For me, it is indeed a return to the ambitions I had for work in cinema as a student."

The film will star Tim Roth, who has appeared in Four Rooms, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and Bruno Ganz, who played the role of Hitler in Downfall.

Coppola's finest achievements as a director remain The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.

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