FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA - COPPOLA AND SALLES TO ADAPT KEROUAC

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA has teamed up with Brazilian director WALTER SALLES to bring beatnik author JACK KEROUAC's seminal work ON THE ROAD to the big screen.

The GODFATHER film-maker's production company American Zoetrope has owned the rights to the novel since 1979, but Coppola has only just secured what he feels is the perfect screenwriter and director team.

Salles, who grabbed international acclaim with the hard-hitting CITY OF GOD and THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, will direct the upcoming film while JOSE RIVERA will write the script.

Coppola says, "The book is inherently difficult to adapt to the screen, and we've never quite found the right combination of director and writer to do it justice until now."

Meanwhile, Salles is relishing the opportunity to transform Kerouac's tale of hitchhiking and rites of passage into a modern day screen classic.

He says, "On the Road is a seminal book that gave voice to a whole generation - capturing its hunger for experience, unwillingness to accept imposed truths and dissatisfaction with the status quo. It is as modern today as it was four decades ago."