Coppola found her perfect leading man in Stephen Dorff. Which was sort of who she’d had in mind the entire time, anyway. “When I was working on that other script and this character came into my head, I pictured Stephen from the beginning,” the director says. “Other actors were suggested to me [later], but I came back to my first [choice], Stephen.”

Having made an impact with films like Back Beat and Blade, Dorff had been appearing in less high profile films for a while. Coppola's offer seemed like the perfect return to form. “After making around three dozen movies, I’ve gotten a gift of a part,” Dorff recalls. “Somewhere is special – poetic, sweet, and truly in Sofia’s style.” Now he just needed to figure out who Johnny Marco was…