Francis Ford Coppola Premieres TWIXT Footage And Discusses The Future Of Cinema
The Godfather director edits footage of his next film live at Comic Con!
It feels fitting that I bring news of Francis Ford Coppolas Twixt Comic Con Panel after my previous two articles on the subject, you know the panel which promised so much. Francis Ford Coppola doesn't disappoint and thanks to Comic Con hes definitely upped the innovation by not only showing stunning footage from his next project but also editing said footage live to his audience. Ill get on to the interactive aspect a little later, but first, for anyone new to this, Twixt is best described as a thriller with overtones of horror in which Val Kilmer stars as a struggling writer who whilst on a book tour finds himself caught up in a small town murder mystery case, the small town in question, Swan Valley has many dark, disturbing secrets just waiting to surface. 
From the clips Coppola debuted this premise holds up, yet with added vampires to boot. A summary of the scenes then; firstly our down-on-his-luck writer (Kilmer) treks through the town centre of Swan Valley, on his way meeting vampire like teens, led by Alden Ehrenreich, the Tetro star playing goth Flamingo. Then there is Bruce Derns character he introduces the murder mystery to our troubled writer as well as an electric chair, which is solely for these mysterious teen vampires. As seen in the photo I published a few days back, Elle Fanning plays a punky ghost named V, oh, and Ben Chaplin plays Edgar Allen Poe who comes to Kilmer in a dream with news of a further murder mystery. I could go on, the ever enthusiastic Coppola seemed to reveal a lot of footage, yet not really ruin much in case of plot. The reason behind the onslaught of footage, well Coppola, along with musician Dan Deacon has created what can best be described as an interactive edit system. Coppola using an iPad and some other nifty equipment is able to edit the files how he sees fit. For the lucky Comic Con viewers the auteur demonstrated the system, rehashing and remixing the footage to form differing trailers of the film. The image below will give you a better understanding of the process: 
Coppola plans to tour with Deacon (wholl bring the ever changing score) screening the movie over 30 dates in which each city will be presented with a different variation of Twixt. This brings up many questions on narrative and the audiences expectations, though Im sure the system works just fine. Its an intriguing gimmick, one that feels a millennium away from Rodriguezs 4D experience with the horrifying Spy Kids 4. Some of Twixt was shot and will be screened in 3D yet Coppola isnt too keen on the process, as in an inspiring move the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now went on to say:
Cinema is so young! How dare anyone think all it has got up its sleeve is more 3D where the ticket sales go up? Cinema is a baby. Of course were going to see wonderful innovations come; there will be many.Im glad to see some filmmakers still have a diehard passion for their art form. Twixt not only looks like a great gothic thriller that may bring some class back to the horror genre yet it also highlights how cinema has so much more to offer and that 3D is just a cash-in fad. God bless Francis Ford Coppola.