Francis Ford Coppola has joined Instagram. To celebrate the news, the director of “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” posted a black and white image of himself, accompanied by a touching message:
“I have officially joined the world of social media. My hope is to give you a glimpse into my life and journey in making the most interesting film of my career @megalopolisfilm. One of the greatest surprises in life is when you realize you’re elderly. But there’s a gentle comfort coming from that, as everyone loves stories and long ago adventures told by their Grandpa.”
Coppola published two other posts, including a photo of his grandfather, Agostino Coppola, sound operator and one of the creators of the Vitaphone, the sound system used on the first talkie in history, “The Jazz Singer”.
On his third post, he publicly thanked the cast of “Megalopolis”, superimposing the photos of the main actors via a montage.
The filmmaker recently finished filming “Megalopolis”, one of the most ambitious projects of his career, which he partly financed from his own pocket to the tune of $120 million.
The film will be set in a modern city inspired by ancient Rome. “It’s an epic, in the traditional style of Cecil B. DeMille or Ben-Hur, but set in the present day and centered in America. It's based on the Catiline conspiracy (a political plot that marked the history of Rome), which comes from Ancient Rome”.
The shooting wasn’t completely smooth, there was the hasty departure of the special effects team, production designer Beth Mickle and art department supervisor David Scott.
The “Megalopolis” cast is quite something, Adam Driver, Shia Labeouf, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Aubrey Plaza, Kathryn Hunter, Giancarlo Esposito and Grace Vanderwaal.
The film is currently in post-production, and is expected to be released sometime in 2024.
Scott says it could be “the highest budget film” of his career” before accounting for tax incentives.” If Scott isn’t bullsh*tting here, and lord knows he might be, that would put the cost in the $200M+ range.