HOLLYWOOD - Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola lost 15 years of computer data during a recent burglary at his Argentinean home.

Five thieves broke into the Godfather director's Buenos Aires house and made out with a laptop containing the script for his new movie Tetro--due to start shooting in February--writings and family photographs.

Coppola wasn't home at the time of the break-in, but the burglars threatened a person who was in the property.

Although Coppola has saved copies of the Tetro script elsewhere, on Friday he issued a plea for the return of a small computer backup device.

He said, "They stole our computers; they got all our data, many years of work. If I could get the backup back, it would save me years--all the photographs of my family, all my writing."

A spokesperson for the Hollywood director says he has offered a reward for the backup's safe return.

Tetro is set to star Matt Damon and is about an artistic Italian immigrant family living in Buenos Aires.

http://www.hollywood.com/news/Coppola_Lost_15_Years_of_Data_in_Burglary/4923741