Deadline is reporting that Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” is set for a big fall IMAX release. The question remains whether Coppola’s intentions are to premiere this one at Cannes. I was told recently that’s the goal.
Three weeks ago, Coppola shared, via his Instagram, the title image for “Megalopolis.” Let’s hope a trailer is coming soon. I also recently read the original script for this film, and it’s really … wild. I’m not sure how it’ll translate on screen, but it’s definitely an, err, original statement. The script is out there, if anybody is interested.
If the film does indeed go to Cannes, will it be in or out of competition? Coppola holds Cannes in the highest esteem and he probably wants “Megalopolis” to compete for the Palme d’Or. Regardless, a Cannes debut is still very risky, to put it mildly, because if “Megalopolis” is met with bad reviews on the Croisette then it could put a major damper in Coppola’s search for a distributor.
The film stars Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Chloe Fineman, Dustin Hoffman, Shia LaBeouf, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jason Schwartzman and Jon Voight.
Coppola, a legendary Oscar-winning director is self-funding “Megalopolis,” a passion project more than four decades in the making. He sold his lucrative winery to fund the film, which was said to cost around $120 million. Here’s the synopsis:
In New York, a woman is divided between loyalties to her father, who has a classical view of society, and her lover, who is more progressive and ready for the future.
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 “Apocalypse Now,” maybe even before.
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.