Before directing The Outsiders, Francis Fold Coppola made a film called One from the Heart. The film bombed at the box office. Coppola had already directed successful book-based film like The Godfather and its sequel The Godfather 2. But the failure of One from the Heart made Coppola depressed.
In a Yahoo interview, the director said "I was very depressed at the time (after One from the heart), which was a heartbreak to me and involved some stupidity on my part. I was very despondent about the terrible reaction."
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One From the heart grossed only $600,000 with a budget of $26 million. It will be the director's biggest flop. Due to failure of the film, Coppola was facing bankruptcy. However, it would be a large envelope from the Lone Star Elementary School library class from Fresno, California that will change things around for the director in a very positive way.
The package had fifteen pages of signatures from seventh and eighth graders (from Jo Ellen Misakian, the librarian).
Here is a statement from the director on about the envelope:
“These children had voted that I should take their favorite book and make it into a film. And the fact that these kids had voted for me to do their film meant for sure I was going to [at least] read the book … And I read it, and I was very touched by the book because it showed how young people really have such strong feelings. I was very moved by it.”
So, Coppola decided his next film would be The Outsiders. Coopla started filming in Tulsa in March 1982. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
The book-based film "The Outsiders" made $33 million with a budge of only $10 million. The reviews were also very positive as the late Gene Siskel compared it to Rebel Without a Cause and American Graffiti. The film was also made stars out of the cast members that include C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Diane Lane, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise. .
I'll leave you with Coppla's last quote from his Yahoo Interview:
“Once again, I listened to the advice and the opinion of the young people,” Coppola says. “Which is what we should be doing in the world today, in my opinion.”
Source: Yahoo.com