Since I’m about to write about Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” I will, subtly, drop a semi-scoop here.
It turns out that a rough cut of the film secretly screened this past September at TIFF. The amount of information to come out of it has been little to none and it’s only very recently that I learned that it even screened in Toronto.
The source who gave me this info saw the film, but couldn’t even tell me if they liked it, as multiple embargo forms were signed before anybody could enter the room — all they could tell me was that it was “unlike anything” they’d seen before.
As we approach the inevitable Cannes premiere for Coppola’s epic, Adam Driver, star of “Megalopolis,” is giving us more details about Coppola’s film which, apparently, he has seen a rough cut of (via Collider).
The movie is wild,” he says, “It’s so imaginative and big and epic, and it’s bold. It takes a risk, and I couldn’t be more excited by it. I will not say more. I’ll stop there […] But it’s amazing.”
Driver added that he’s never been part of such a unique film set: “because [Coppola] financed it himself, it made the shooting process one of the best experiences, if not the best shooting experience, I’ve ever had,” Driver explained, saying, “There was no excess conversation, there were no people robbing from Peter to pay Paul.”
According to Driver, this financial freedom led to Coppola having all the space imaginable to make his own creative decisions. “It felt like he was in control of the movie that he wanted to make and that was it,” Driver said, adding, “It felt like, ‘Oh, this is how movies should be.’ And he is the most generous, philosophical person that I know. I loved that process and making it with him. I love talking to him.”
In August, Coppola screened 30 minutes of “Megalopolis” to Spike Lee down in Atlanta. Lee announced the meeting on Instagram. His reaction? “OMG amazing.”
We all want Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” to turn out great. This could be the master’s final film, but, more importantly, it’s one he’s been working on for more than 40 years.
There’s isn’t much we know about “Megalopolis,” apart from Coppola sprinkling clues here and there. Mike Figgis, who directed “Leaving Las Vegas,” met Coppola through his nephew Nicolas Cage and says that a “Megalopolis” documentary will accompany the film’s release — it will feature interviews with Scorsese, Lucas and Spielberg. Figgis tries to explain the film for us …
It is a futuristic film, set in a New York that will be called New Rome (at its center an architect who wants to rebuild the utopian metropolis after a disaster). It’s very philosophical, but also veers towards political satire. Francis is obsessed with Roman history, its roots.
As mentioned, the film is looking at a Cannes 2024 premiere, next May, and it stars Adam Driver, Forrest Whittaker, Jon Voight, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishbourne, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza, Talia Shire, and Dustin Hoffman.
Coppola, the legendary Oscar-winning director sold a share of his winery empire and self-funded “Megalopolis,” a passion project, more than three decades in the making. The cost is said to be around $120 million for the epic.
Reeves is supposed to direct, David E. Kelley is writing, and just like that, Apple got cold feet — the usual “creative differences” excuse is being cited in the report, and maybe that was indeed the case.