Gia Coppola Makes Directorial Debut With ‘Palo Alto’ [Video]

Gia Coppola recently made her directorial debut with the 2013 drama Palo Alto. The movie is based on a series of short stories penned by actor James Franco.

The filmmaker assembled a fantastic group of young actors to populated her first cinematic effort. Counted among the cast are Emma Roberts, Pretty Little Liars alum Keegan Allen, and Jack Kilmer.

Although Palo Alto made its debut at the Telluride Film Festival towards the end of August, the flick doesn’t have a proper release date to speak of at the moment. Fans of Franco’s stories may have to wait a while before they can experience the cinematic endeavor for themselves.

Gia Coppola is the granddaughter of legendary Apocalypse Now director Francis Ford Coppola. The budding filmmaker might have famous relatives — Sofia Coppola is her aunt — she recently told The Canadian Press that she wanted to tackle her first project by herself.

“It was important for me to find my own voice and try to do it on my own,” Coppola explained.

What is Palo Alto all about? According to the logline found at Internet Movie Database, the film follows the adventures of several teenagers who have a knack for landing in trouble. Emma Roberts stars as a student who is fending off advances from her soccer coach (James Franco).

Sofia and Gia Coppola isn’t the only person in her family looking to follow in The Godfather director’s footsteps. Writer-director Roman Coppola unleashed his directorial debut CQ back in 2001. Unfortunately, the film remains criminally unseen to this day.

He followed up this effort with the 2012 Charlie Sheen drama A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. Roman has also directed music videos for the likes of Green Day and Moby.

The trailer for Palo Alto lies below.

Are you looking forward to catching Gia Coppola’s directorial debut in theaters?

[Image via cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com]