Late last year I was wondering why there were some negative Debbie Downers practically hoping for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” to fail. No true fan of cinema would hope for this to be a letdown. It boggles the mind that it’s come to this.
Even with reports of on-set chaos circulating earlier this month, there was optimism on my part, especially given that this is the man whose greatest films (The Godfather and Apocalypse Now) needed the chaos to turn into these landmark statements.
Paul Schrader seems to be of the same mindset. Why all the haters, he writes:
FRANCIS COPPOLA has embarked on one of the gutsiest, most ambitious ventures in film history. Yet I sense some in the film community wish him ill. Why is that? Human nature? Jealousy? All cinema lovers should hope that Francis pulls off this last great legerdemain.
Coppola started writing “Megalopolis” in the early ‘80s. The earliest anecdote has Coppola talking about the project during the 1982 shoot of “The Outsiders.” So, this project must have been ruminating in his head right after 1979’s “Apocalypse Now,” maybe even before.
In a May 2007 interview, Coppola even stated that he had to direct “Bram Stoker's Dracula”, “Jack,” and “The Rainmaker” to get out of debt and fund “Megalopolis”. That’s how important this film is to him.
There were table reads in 2001 with DiCaprio, De Niro, Crowe, Spacey and others only for the project to get completely scrapped in 2007.
“Megalopolis” has turned into one of the great legends of cinema, up there with Kubrick’s “Napoleon.” The fact that the “what could have been?” has now turned into a full-blown production in Georgia is damn-near miraculous.
Coppola sold a large share of his successful winery to back the project and the cast he’s assembled includes Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Forest Whitaker, Shia LaBoeuf and Jon Voight. Godspeed.