Francis Ford Coppola has sold his private Belize island, Coral Caye, for $1.8 million following major financial losses from his film Megalopolis. The 85-year-old filmmaker had leased the 2.5-acre island for nine years. Coral Caye, located eight miles offshore and reachable by a 25-minute boat ride, operates independently with solar panels and water tanks. (Story URL)
Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver will star in Joseph Cedar’s new thriller Useful Idiots, set in New York City. The film follows a veteran journalist who covers the city’s luxury property market. Her search for a buyer’s identity uncovers a powerful oligarch protected by fixers and a young strategist, drawing her into a dangerous web of corruption. (Story URL)
Lee Tamahori, best known for Once Were Warriors and the James Bond film Die Another Day, has died at 75. No cause was given, though Tamahori said in May he had been living with Parkinson’s disease. Born in Wellington in 1950, Tamahori also directed movies including The Edge, Along Came a Spider, XXX: State of the Union, and Next. (Story URL)
