"The things they fire you for when you are young are the same things that they give you lifetime achievement awards for when you are old." - Francis Ford Coppola in "El Rey Network Presents: The Director's Chair"

EL REY NETWORK PRESENTS AN EVENING OF CONVERSATION WHEN ROBERT RODRIGUEZ SITS DOWN WITH A GODFATHER OF MODERN CINEMA, FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA, IN 'EL REY NETWORK PRESENTS: THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR' FOLLOWED BY THE NETWORK PREMIERE OF COPPOLA'S THE CONVERSATION

El Rey Network Will Air "El Rey Network Presents: The Director's Chair" on Monday, March 2 at 8:00pm ET/8:30pm PT followed by Coppola's The Conversation at 9:00pm ET/9:30pm PT

January 21, 2015 (Austin, TX) -- El Rey Network Founder and Chairman, Robert Rodriguez sits down with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola for a new installment of "El Rey Network Presents: The Director's Chair," a series of hour-long specials featuring the industry's most creative storytellers engaging in a revealing and unexpected exchange about the world of filmmaking. Immediately following "The Director's Chair" at 8:00pm ET/8:30pm PT El Rey Network will air Coppola's The Conversation at 9:00pm ET/9:30 PT.

"El Rey Network Presents: The Director's Chair"

Monday, March 2 at 8:00pm

In this candid and insightful interview, Rodriguez and Coppola discuss Coppola's epic career tracing his early filmmaking inspirations back to childhood. Never before has a filmmaker in the history of the medium had a streak of masterpiece-level films that Francis Ford Coppola enjoyed between The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. Part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking auteurs that anointed kingly status to the director, Coppola was able to work within the studio system though not without his own challenges. In the interview, Coppola discusses his surprising reluctance to do both The Godfather and The Godfather: Part IIas well as providing new insight into the well documented struggles on Apocalypse Now, which resulted in arguably the greatest war film of all time.

The Conversation

Monday, March 2 at 9:00pm

Coppola, who believes in making "one film for them and one film for me," made this film featuring a paranoid, secretive surveillance expert in between The Godfather and The Godfather: Part 2. One of the great 70s-era paranoia thrillers, The Conversation stars Gene Hackman and features John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr and Robert Duvall. The psychological thriller revolving around the moral dilemma a surveillance expert faces when his recordings reveal a potential murder was written, produced and directed by Coppola. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for three Academy Awards. The film lost the top prize to Coppola's The Godfather: Part II at the 1974 Academy Awards, marking the only time in history that a single person credited as producer & director had two films in the Best Picture category.

"El Rey Network Presents: The Director's Chair" is a series of hour-long specials featuring the industry's most cutting edge directors as they engage in a revealing and unexpected exchange about the world of filmmaking. The series provides access to one-on-one interviews between Rodriguez and some of cinema's most iconic filmmakers.

"El Rey Network Presents: The Director's Chair" is produced for El Rey Network by Troublemaker Studios and Skip Film in association with FactoryMade Ventures. Executive producers are Robert Rodriguez, Skip Chaisson, John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa.

To find El Rey Network in your area please check out the channel finder at bit.ly/WatchERN

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About El Rey Network

El Rey Network is a new 24-hour English language network founded by maverick filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. Curated by Rodriguez and his artistic collective, the network unites the most culturally diverse generation in history through fearless, badass and original content that awakens the renegade in everyone. The network's action-packed content is anchored by original signature dramas, feature films, grindhouse genre, cult classic action, and horror/sci-fi. El Rey Network LLC (www.elreynetwork.com) is jointly owned by Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures with a minority stake held by Univision Networks & Studios, Inc.