Sofia Coppola was set to create a miniseries adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country for Apple TV+ before it was abruptly shelved in 2021. Now, Coppola alleges that the reason it was dropped by the streamer was because it featured an “unlikeable” female protagonist.
Coppola is the acclaimed filmmaker behind Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation, and Priscilla, and has become known for her visually breathtaking cinematic style. She has scooped up a number of prestigious accolades, including three Golden Globes and an Oscar. Additionally, in 2010, she became the youngest woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, a feat that is quite incredible considering that Hollywood has consistently failed to hire female directors (and the Academy seems to have a problem nominating them). Unfortunately, her impressive resume can’t ward off the doubts and opinions of men in the industry.
Coppola previously opened up about how she abandoned her live-action Little Mermaid project after a male producer wanted to know how her female-focused film would appeal to “35-year-old men.” At the time, Coppola expressed frustration with how it’s usually “straight men” who are financing movies and who sometimes fail to realize that not every single film is going to be something they’re explicitly interested in. Now, she has another story that disappointingly parallels The Little Mermaid debacle.
Sofia Coppola reveals why Apple TV+ canceled her show
In 2020, it was announced that Coppola and Apple were teaming up for an adaptation of Wharton’s The Custom of the Country. She was set to write and direct the project, which would follow the story of Undine Spragg’s relentless mission to improve her social status and wealth in New York City by any means necessary. Several of Wharton’s novels, such as The Buccaneers and The Age of Innocence, have already been successfully adapted and received critical acclaim. To have Coppola bringing another one of Wharton’s humorous and bold works to life was exciting, making it quite disappointing when Apple suddenly canceled the adaptation.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Coppola opened up about the project. She revealed for the first time that Florence Pugh had been selected to star in the series as Undine. However, the Apple pulled its funding from the project, leading to the show’s cancellation. Granted, Coppola’s series wouldn’t have come cheap. She had a big vision, including making all five of the miniseries’ episodes like “five Marie Antoinettes.” Given that Marie Antoinette had a budget of $40 million, this might have meant that every episode in the Apple TV+ series would have a comparable budget. Still, this didn’t seem to be a problem, as Coppola pointed out the streamer seemed to have “endless resources.”
According to Coppola, her Wharton adaptation was canceled because Apple executives, who were predominantly male, didn’t understand the main character, Undine. In particular, they were put off by the idea that she was “so unlikeable.” Even though Coppola pointed out that there are plenty of popular, unlikeable male characters, like Tony Soprano, her project was still shut down following disagreements about her lead character. Once again, Coppola experienced what happens when males are almost exclusively in charge of what gets funded and greenlit in Hollywood.
Coppola also seemed to be on to something about Apple’s seemingly endless funds. The streamer has actually put quite a good deal of money into other female-led projects, including the adaptation of Wharton’s The Buccaneers, which has been described as a “big-budget” series. Additionally, it spent a staggering $300 million on two seasons of The Morning Show. By those standards, Coppola’s project hardly sounds expensive, suggesting that it genuinely was a disagreement over an unlikeable female protagonist that ended the show’s development. It’s a humorous reason to drop a show, considering how many successful movies and shows feature unlikeable male protagonists. (To say nothing of the acclaimed shows featuring “unlikeable” women; see also: Girls and Apple’s own The Morning Show.)
Seriously, how many shows and movies are about men who are gangsters, serial killers, and womanizers and who make horrible, selfish, and inexplicably stupid decisions? No one blinks an eye about these male protagonists, but a studio is ready to drop an entire project if an unlikeable female protagonist is a woman? Not only is Undine’s unlikeability essential to the plot of Wharton’s acclaimed novel, but having unlikeable women in film and TV in general is important to normalize women having flaws and not living up to society’s definition of perfection.
(featured image: Antony Jones, Getty Images)
