'On The Rocks' Is "Playful With A Lot Of Heart And Sincerity," Says Sofia Coppola
On the Rocks is the long-awaited feature reunion between Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray. With Coppola's Lost in Translation, Murray seemed to reach a turning point in his career. After years of appearing in one comedy flop after another, he proved he had some serious dramatic chops under Coppola's direction. And while the two got together again for the Netflix holiday special A Very Murray Christmas, On the Rocks is their first feature film together in 17 years.EW has a piece about the film up today that includes several images as well as an interview with Coppola. The official synopsis says the film is about "a young mother who reconnects with her larger than life playboy father on an adventure through New York." Rashida Jones is that young mother, while Bill Murray plays her father, and the film is being described as a "pseudo screwball comedy."
"I wanted to do something that was a little bit lighter and more playful with a lot of heart and sincerity," Coppola says of the film. Jones' character, Luara, is happily married, but starts to grow suspicious after her husband (Marlon Wayans) forms a bond with a new co-worker. In true screwball fashion, she recruits her "cocktail-sipping, art-dealing, wealthy playboy father, Felix" to follow Wayans' character around to see if something is up.
Coppola adds: "Felix is an old-world gentleman used to talking over martinis. The way he looks at women and relationships, he's giving advice from his perspective, which is different from how Laura's husband is, and she's trying to see it from his view. It's [juxtaposing] that perspective of the martini generation and how they look at men and women in a different way than we do."
The filmmaker goes on to say that she "never thought" she could do a movie with Murray again, "because people have such a fondness of him and Lost in Translation" and she was worried she could "never recreate something like that." Thankfully, Coppola eventually reconsidered. "We haven't really seen him as this debonair, playboy father at this stage [of life], so I just had to get over it because now we're in a different phase [of life]," the director said.
On the Rocks will arrive in theaters and on Apple TV+ this October.