Director Sofia hopes girl power will beguile Hollywood

Sofia Coppola has said she hopes her latest film with its strong female presence will convince Hollywood to produce more women-led movies.

Coppola was speaking on Monday at the Los Angeles premiere of The Beguiled, which won her best director at Cannes, making her the first woman to win the accolade for more than 50 years.

The US Civil War drama set in a girls’ school stars Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning, who take in a soldier, played by Colin Farrell.

The Lost In Translation director told the Press Association: “What I liked about the story was that it’s about a group of women at a girl’s school in the South and we’ve got characters from 12 to 40.

“So it was nice to have a group of women of so many different ages all together.

“It’s great that Wonder Woman is a hit and hopefully if this does well there will be more.”

Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman made 103.3 million dollars (£82 million) in the US during its opening weekend, setting a new record for a film directed by a woman.

Speaking from the red carpet, Fanning said she was honoured to play Frankenstein author Mary Shelley in a film about the British novelist’s marriage to poet Percy Shelley.

Fanning, 19, added: “She had a very tough life she had to overcome a lot of obstacles in her life.

“It’s so nice to see strong women on screen like that.”

Coppola’s film re-imagines from a women’s perspective the 1971 film of the same name, which stars Clint Eastwood and is based on a novel by Thomas Cullinan.

One of the remake’s younger cast members is teenager Emma Howard.

She said she was thrilled to work on such a star-studded production and said that Farrell was “awesome”.

“He is such a nice guy and he brought his kid to set – he’s such a nice person,” she added.

The Beguiled will be released in the UK on July 14 and Mary Shelley is due out later this year.