Mubi Buys Eleanor Coppola's Marie Antoinette Doc
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- Mubi acquired worldwide rights to "Making Marie Antoinette," a documentary assembled from roughly 80 hours of previously unseen footage Eleanor Coppola shot on the set of Sofia Coppola's 2005 film, timed to the original's 20th anniversary.
- Sofia Coppola's original "Marie Antoinette" — starring Kirsten Dunst as the doomed queen and Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI — was the first film production ever granted permission to shoot at the Palace of Versailles.
- Diane Lane voices Eleanor Coppola in the documentary, reading passages from the late filmmaker's journals reflecting on her time on set and her relationship with her daughter Sofia.
- Sofia Coppola said she and her mother began reviewing the footage during lockdown, calling it "moving" to revisit the shoot through Eleanor's eyes; the project fulfills Eleanor's wish that the material be turned into a feature-length documentary.
- Aaron Matthews edited the film with input from Eleanor Coppola's close friends Davia Nelson and Liz Bird; it was produced by Lorenzo Mieli, Mario Gianani, Rachel Dengiz, Youree Henley, and Sofia Coppola, and financed by Our Films (a Mediawan company), Mediawan Rights, and Entourage Pictures.
- Mubi CEO Efe Cakarel called Sofia Coppola "one of the defining filmmakers of her generation" and described revisiting the film "through Eleanor Coppola's eyes" as "incredibly moving"; Mubi said release plans will be announced in the near future.
Why it matters: Mubi is adding a prestige documentary to its slate at the exact moment Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" hits its 20th anniversary, with Diane Lane voicing the late Eleanor Coppola and producer Lorenzo Mieli invoking Eleanor's "Hearts of Darkness" legacy as the project's artistic anchor. The deal, financed by Our Films and Mediawan, extends Mubi's track record of curating filmmaker-driven arthouse releases rather than broad-appeal streaming fare.
