The Beguiled (2017 film) for a biracial character from the novel, she cast white actress Kirsten Dunst. "The Guardian" said Coppola was criticized for engaging in whitewashing, to which the director said she made the changes so as "not [to] brush over such an important topic in a light way," and that "[y]oung girls watch my films and this was not the depiction of an African American character I would want to show them." The Beguiled (2017 film) The Beguiled is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, based on the novel of the same name (originally published as "A
Francis Ford Coppola nomination. It was the first box-office success for Coppola since "Apocalypse Now" and the film ranked number 17 on "Entertainment Weekly"s list of "50 Best High School Movies". The following year, Coppola re-teamed with James Caan for "Gardens of Stone", but the film was overshadowed by the death of Coppola's eldest son Gian-Carlo Coppola during the film's production. The movie was not a critical success and performed poorly at the box office, earning only $5.6 million against a budget of $13 million. Coppola directed "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" the following year. A biopic based on the life of