Francis Ford Coppola director's worst work yet." In 1990, he released the third and final chapter of "The Godfather" series: "The Godfather Part III". While not as critically acclaimed as the first two films, it was still a box office success, earning $136 million against a budget of $54 million. Some reviewers criticized the casting of Coppola's daughter Sofia, who had stepped into the leading role of Mary Corleone which had been abandoned by Winona Ryder just as filming began. Despite this, "The Godfather Part III" went on to gather 7 Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. The film failed
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