Coppola: Loses By a Nose

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday September 11, 1997 12:00 AM EDT

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Director Francis Ford Coppola, 61, has lost his court appeal against Warner Bros. over an unrealized film project called "Pinocchio," reports Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. He's lost a lot more, too: the $20 million jury award that was part of the case. In 1998, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury ruled that Warners falsely claimed to have a "Pinocchio" deal with the filmmaker ("The Godfather," "Apocalypse Now") that prevented him from making the movie with Columbia Pictures. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeals ruled that Warner Bros. had the right to tell Columbia in a 1994 letter that it reserved all rights to a Coppola "Pinocchio" movie.