Someone Let Sofia Coppola Make Things, Dammit

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Back in 2020 it was announced that Sofia Coppola, she of iconic features like The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette, was planning a limited series adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1913 novel The Custom of the Country. The book follows heroine Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl attempting to break into New York society. As Coppola said at the time, "Undine Spragg is my favorite literary anti-heroine and I’m excited to bring her to the screen for the first time."

Unfortunately, Coppola wouldn't get to show off her vision as, in 2024 she revealed that Apple had pulled funding for the project, presumably because the character of Undine Spragg, who was going to be played by Florence Pugh, was deemed unlikable. (Rumors swirled that the failure of her 2020 feature On the Rocks was also a factor.) "They didn’t get the character of Undine. She’s so ‘unlikable.’ But so is Tony Soprano!” said Coppola in a 2024 interview.