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 screenplay. The film recouped its expenses and later became a cult film among horror buffs. It was on the sets of "Dementia 13" that he met his future wife Eleanor Jessie Neil. In 1965, Coppola won the annual Samuel Goldwyn Award for the best screenplay ("Pilma, Pilma") written by a UCLA student. This secured him a job as a scriptwriter with Seven Arts. In between, he co-wrote the scripts for "This Property Is Condemned" (1966) and "Is Paris Burning?" (1966). However, with fame still eluding him and partly out of desperation, Coppola bought the rights to the David Benedictus novel