Audio Video News

Francis Ford Coppola wants to make you an offer you can't refuse: the five-time Academy Award-winning writer/director and winemaker says he is now turning his creative talents to the Internet and e-commerce. His Napa Valley winery, Niebaum-Coppola, has recently launched a new website that proffers videos, food, and wine, along with contests for movie items from Coppola films.

To encourage movie fans to use the site, Coppola says the names of December shoppers will be automatically entered in a contest to win one of three Niebaum-Coppola gift packages. He says the three prizes given away will include: a rare script booklet from The Godfather, Part III, signed by Coppola, Mario Puzo, and Al Pacino; and a copy of the just-released DVD edition of Apocalypse Now, autographed by Coppola.

In addition to finding most of Coppola's films, oenophiles who visit the site will find Niebaum-Coppola's wines, along with items from the "Coppola Family Kitchen." Aspiring scribes can visit the "Writer's Cafe," offering what Coppola claims is his favorite French writer's kit and writing tablets, cigars, and leather notepads; and Zoetrope: All-Story, Coppola's short-story magazine, "founded in an effort to revive the art of storytelling."

In explaining why he decided to go online, Coppola says, "I have become fascinated by the process of shopping on the Internet. I feel it will take its place beside our old custom of shopping in real stores—the two co-existing together. I enjoy the instant gratification of finding something I want as a gift, and then knowing I've bought it with just a click. Often, there was a favorite product that I used to find in certain shops in Paris or Rome—Diptique candles, or Caran d'ache pens that I wanted for myself and had trouble locating. So we added these items to our Chateau store in Napa or our Cafe Niebaum-Coppola store in San Francisco, just so I could count on getting them."