Coppola's Headed To Pre-AIDS San Fran

Sofia Coppola's last few films have been, in their own ways, contemplations of fame — there was Somewhere, which took on the more personal side of that, followed by The Bling Ring, which looked at the societal. She's departing from this theme with her next one, though (probably): Coppola's adapting Alysia Abbott's memoir Fairyland for the big screen. For those unfamiliar, Abbott's memoir follows her and her father as she grows up in the pre-AIDs San Francisco gay community. Here's a snippet of the book's synopsis:

[In San Francisco] they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation—few of whom are raising a child.

Steve throws himself into San Francisco’s vibrant cultural scene. He takes Alysia to raucous parties, pushes her in front of the microphone at poetry readings, and introduces her to a world of artists, thinkers, and writers. But the pair live like nomads, moving from apartment to apartment, with a revolving cast of roommates and little structure. As a child Alysia views her father as a loving playmate who can transform the ordinary into magic, but as she gets older Alysia wants more than anything to fit in. The world, she learns, is hostile to difference.

There are glimpses of Coppola's past films here — the opulence of Marie Antoinette and The Bling Ring, the father-daughter contemplation of Somewhere, the teen discovery of The Virgin Suicides. The story also takes a dark turn:

In Alysia’s teens, Steve’s friends—several of whom she has befriended—fall ill as AIDS starts its rampage through their community. While Alysia is studying in New York and then in France, her father tells her it’s time to come home; he’s sick with AIDS. Alysia must choose whether to take on the responsibility of caring for her father or continue the independent life she has worked so hard to create.

It's not the Weetzie Bat adaptation we still want to see from her, but we'll take it.