Francis Ford Coppola ("The Godfather", "Apocalypse Now") will return to directing after an eight-year hiatus with a self-financed, low-budget pic to lense in Bucharest reports Variety.

The bigscreen adaptation of "Youth Without Youth" is based on the novella by Romanian author and intellectual Mircea Eliade. Coppola penned the screenplay and is producing through his American Zoetrope banner. Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz and Marcel Iures will star in the pic, scheduled to begin production October 3rd.

Story centers on a professor whose life changes after a cataclysmic incident during the dark years before WWII. Becoming a fugitive, he is pursued through far-flung locations including Romania, Switzerland, Malta and India.

"Youth" marks Coppola's first directing project since 1997's "The Rainmaker".

Thanks to 'KC'.