Apple TV has bid adieu to a Sofia Coppola series starring Florence Pugh

When Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla hit UK cinemas early this month, the female auteur once again showcased her ability to infuse any subject matter with a touch of romance and nostalgia. The next project slated for Sofia Coppola’s characteristic touch was a TV series based on Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country. The 1913 novel tells the story of Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl who attempts to find her place in New York high society. In Coppola’s five episode miniseries, the role was going to taken on by Florence Pugh. But during a recent interview with The New Yorker, Coppola confirmed that Apple had “pulled [their] funding”. Why exactly? According to the director, Apple “didn’t get the character of Undine” and found her to be “unlikable”: “but so is Tony Soprano!” Coppola said.

Before its demise, Coppola spent two years on The Custom of the Country project. According to her, its budget would have been $200 million (or “five ‘Marie Antionettes’” as she put it). While hefty for Coppola, it’s a figure that would feel right at home amongst the hordes upon hordes of male-led serials in male-dominated genres. Apple TV’s See, the action, sci-fi series with Jason Momoa as its lead, had a budget of $15 million per episode. Despite flopping, they went on to make three series of it.

Compare that to the fate of Coppola’s rendition of The Custom of the Country, and an image starts to emerge: female filmmakers just aren’t given the same opportunities as their male counterparts. Despite her long and decorated career, Coppola even faced this reality with Priscilla. When she spoke to The National late last year, Coppola revealed that during production she thought about auctioning off a day with Jacob Elordi in order to get a few more days filming. She didn’t end up doing so, and as a result sequences of Priscilla living independently in Los Angeles had to be cut.

And what credentials make Undine Spragg an “unlikeable” character? That’s deserving of a whole article of it’s own. Really, it’s a description that plagues nearly every cinematic depiction of a woman, rearing its ugly head just as you thought progress had been made: the backlash to the latest series of True Detective is a damning testament to that. It also begs another question: do execs and audiences alike want “likeable” female characters instead? Of course not. We just can’t win.