Film directors recap: new films from Coppola, Banderas and Lee

A horror thriller, a sci-fi thriller and a fantasy adaptation are films slated to be made with Oscar-winning directors Francis Ford Coppala and Ang Lee, plus actor Antonio Banderas in his third time directing a film.

Francis Ford Coppola is currently shooting his next film, Twixt Now and Sunrise, a thriller about a horror novelist based on one of the director's short stories. Being filmed on location in Napa Valley, California, it stars Val Kilmer ( The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Macgruber), Elle Fanning ( The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Bruce Dern ( Monster), reported Deadline Hollywood October 25. Coppola's last film was the underrated independent film Tetro. Fanning also stars in Somewhere, by the director's daughter Sofia Coppola, and is shooting J.J. Abrams' alien story Super 8.

Director Ang Lee ( Brokeback Mountain, Taking Woodstock) has cast the adaptation of Yann Martel's acclaimed novel Life of Pi with 17-year-old newcomer Suraj Sharma after a worldwide search among 3,000 young men. The story follows Pi Patel, stranded at sea for 227 days with a tiger from his family's zoo, according to Variety. The 3D film is set to begin shooting in Taiwan and India for a December 14, 2012 release date.

Antonio Banderas, currently shooting Pedro Almodovar's The Skin That I Inhabit, due next year, has signed on to direct Solo, a sci-fi psychological thriller in which he will also star. The actor previously directed 1999's Crazy in Alabama and 2006's Summer Rain. The story follows a Spanish colonel suffering from post-traumatic stress. Spanish actors will be cast though it will be an English-language film. Production is planned for next year with a 2012 release. Banderas is also scheduled to portray the surrealist painter Dali, co-starring with Catherine Zeta-Jones, and to voice Puss in Boots, the Shrek spin-off.

RC