Francis Ford Coppola returns to San Diego Comic-Con with horror film Twixt

Francis Ford Coppola is making his first return to San Diego Comic-Con in nearly two decades with plans to bring clips and music from his upcoming horror story Twixt to this year’s fanboy meet-up, according to EW. The legendary filmmaker describes the independent horror film as “one part Gothic romance, one part personal film, and one part the kind of horror film that began my career.”

Considering his first film work was on titles such as The Terror, Dementia 13 and The Haunted Palace, it sounds like the The Godfather and Apocalypse Now director is moving away from art house fare like Tetro and Youth Without Youth and more toward grindhouse.

According to the report, Twixt was formerly known as Twixt Now and Sunrise. The film stars Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, Ben Chaplin, Elle Fanning, Joanne Whalley, David Paymer, Alden Ehrenreich, Anthony Fusco, Don Novello and Ryan Simpkins, and features a mix of 2D and 3D-shot scenes.

According to Coppola, the story is inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne and came to him during a “vivid dream” while visiting Istanbul.

Here’s the official synopsis:

A writer with a declining career arrives in a small town as part of his book tour and gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl. That night in a dream, he is approached by a mysterious young ghost named V. He’s unsure of her connection to the murder in the town, but is grateful for the story being handed to him. Ultimately he is led to the truth of the story, surprised to find that the ending has more to do with his own life than he could ever have anticipated.

Francis Ford Coppola was last at San Diego Comic-Con in 1991 to preview his film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He is expected to present scenes from Twixt on Saturday, July 23rd, in the massive Hall H auditorium, joined by musician Dan Deacon, who will reportedly perform part of his score from the horror film.

Twixt is expected to be released in U.S. theaters later this year.