News > Coppola's Conversation to Become a Series
September 18, 2006
Content taken from Coming Soon:
Producer Tony Krantz ("24") is teaming with screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Erik Jendresen ("Band of Brothers") to turn Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation into a weekly series for ABC.
Coppola is on board as an executive producer, Krantz said, with ABC sibling Touchstone Television close to a deal to serve as the project's studio, along with Krantz's Flame Ventures.
Released in 1974, between Coppola's first two "Godfather" films, The Conversation is a sparse thriller featuring Gene Hackman as master of electronic surveillance Harry Caul.
McQuarrie and Jendresen plan to set the TV version in the present day, with Caul now equally adept at digital spying and traditional audio surveillance.
The series will feature close-ended stories, with Caul reluctantly taking on cases in order to help people deserving of assistance. But there'll also be an ongoing storyline since, as in the movie, Caul will be a man under constant observation by various government agencies due to a secret conversation he's recorded.
Caul will work with a group of four other experts he's assembled, none of whom ever know what the others are up to.
McQuarrie and Jendresen will write the pilot, executive producing with Krantz and Coppola.
