CNN.com - Failure, escape and 'The Outsiders' - Sep 13, 2005

Coppola, a Librarian, and an Oklahoma Classic are highlighted in this article...

CNN.com - Failure, escape and 'The Outsiders' - Sep 13, 2005:

The job Coppola took in early 1982, 'The Outsiders,' may have seemed like one of those projects, but it came to him through the mail -- and became a labor of love.

A librarian at the Lone Star Junior High School in Fresno, California, wrote him:

'We are all so impressed with the book, 'The Outsiders' by S.E. Hinton, that a petition has been circulated asking that it be made into a movie. We have chosen you to send it to. In hopes that you might also see the possibilities of a movie, we have enclosed a copy of the book.'

'It was signed by like 110 little signatures,' he recalled. 'Who can ignore that?'

He didn't. And on September 20 he's putting out a two-disc DVD with a version 22 minutes longer.

Over the years, Coppola has received letters from kids praising the movie, but wondering why more of their favorite book wasn't in it.

'I think for me, the showdown was when my granddaughter's class asked me to come and show the film and I was embarrassed to show the normal version,' says Coppola. 'So I cobbled together a version of the whole movie, the whole novel, and I remember looking at it and wondering, 'Why did I ever cut this down?'