Coppola inks Deal With MGM

Under the two-year pact, Coppola will have authority to give the final approval for production of 10 Zoetrope-made films, each budgeted for less than $10 million, according to insiders at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. The films will be released domestically by United Artists, and Coppola is negotiating with a foreign distributor to assume overseas rights for the movies, the sources said. Coppola, whose directorial credits include ``The Godfather'' trilogy of mob films and the Vietnam War epic ``Apocalypse Now,'' has been a member of the MGM board of directors since the mid-'90s. The deal with United Artists has been taking shape in talks that began more than a year ago. MGM announced a reorganization of United Artists last June, turning the maker of the studio_s James Bond franchise into a distributor for smaller-budget boutique films capable of attracting big-name talent. Coppola_s fortunes have risen and fallen over the years with the success and failures of films he has produced through San Francisco-based American Zoetrope, which he co-founded in 1969 as Zoetrope Studios along with George Lucas and others.