Nicolas Cage a nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and of actress Talia Shire, and the cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman. Cage's two brothers are New York radio personality Marc "The Cope" Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. He attended Beverly Hills High School, which is known for its many alumni who became entertainers. He aspired to act from an early age and also attended UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of "Golden Boy". He said he started
Francis Ford Coppola 1998, when the jurors in the resultant court case awarded Coppola $20 million as compensation for losing the "Pinocchio" film project. However, they also awarded him a further $60 million in punitive damages on top, stemming from his charges that Warner Bros. sabotaged his intended version. This is the largest civil financial verdict ever against a Hollywood studio. During the filming of "Contact" on December 28, 1996, Coppola filed a lawsuit against Carl Sagan and Warner Bros. Sagan had died a week earlier and Coppola claimed that Sagan's novel "Contact" was based on a story the pair had developed for