MOVIES - Dec. 21, 1988

Good news for director Francis Coppola: California’s Court of Appeal, in a rare move, has agreed to review a lower court ruling that had dramatically weakened Coppola’s planned defense in a $6-million suit against him. The suit, which grew out of loans that Canadian financier Jack Singer made to Coppola in 1981, is scheduled to go to trial in June. In November, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge threw out Coppola’s claims that he was a victim of fraud and economic duress imposed on him by Singer. But now the appeals court will reconsider that order at a March 15 hearing.