August Coppola August Coppola August Floyd Coppola (February 16, 1934 – October 27, 2009) was an American academic, author, film executive and advocate for the arts. He was the father of actor Nicolas Cage. August Coppola was the son of composer and flutist Carmine Coppola (1910–1991) and Italia Pennino (1912–2004), a lyricist and matriarch of the Coppola family. His siblings are film director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire; his uncle is composer Anton Coppola. August Coppola married German-American dancer Joy Vogelsang in 1960; they had three sons: Marc, Christopher, and Nicolas. Among his nieces and nephews are director Sofia Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola the latter's first film, "THX 1138". Shortly after completion of production they brought the finished film to Warner Bros., along with several other scripts for potential projects at their newly founded company, American Zoetrope. However, studio executives strongly disliked all the scripts, including "THX" and demanded that Coppola repay the $300,000 they had loaned him for the Zoetrope studio, as well as insisting on cutting five minutes from the film. The debt nearly closed Zoetrope and forced Coppola to reluctantly focus on "The Godfather". His company American Zoetrope also administers the Zoetrope Virtual Studio, a complete motion picture production studio