Don’t assume that “Megalopolis” will be 84-year-old Francis Ford Coppola’s swan song. Coppola has confirmed that he’s already working on a new film.
“One way I knew Megalopolis was finished is that I’ve begun work on a new film,” he tells Deadline. “It won’t be cheap by any means, but I don’t know if it can be called ‘an epic film.'”
Coppola’s last film, 2011’s mini-budgeted “Twixt,” was part of a late-career trilogy of ultra independent personal statements from him, the others were 2007’s “Youth Without Youth” and 2009’s “Tetro.” These were films that didn’t find much of an audience and were not that well-reviewed either.
It’s no secret that Coppola lost some part of himself during the catastrophic production of 1979’s “Apocalypse Now,” his last true masterpiece. Although, Coppola swears that 1983’s “Rumble Fish” is his best film, but not many are buying it, especially with a filmography that includes ‘Apocalypse,’ “The Godfather: Part 1 & II” and “The Conversation.” These four films were released in a span of just seven years.
Part of the frustrating post-‘Apocalype Now’ phase of Coppola’s career is that he’s, in fact, had a few keepers here and there, but none that have come close to his ‘70s work.
Film historian David Thomson believed that “Rumble Fish” was "maybe the most satisfying film Coppola made after “Apocalypse Now". It’s surely one of his more underrated works, alongside “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Tucker: The Man and His Dreams,” “The Rainmaker,” and “The Godfather Part III.” However, they all pale in comparison to ‘70s Coppola.
In a May 2007 interview, Coppola stated that he did take on a few projects just for the paycheck, he had to direct “Bram Stoker's Dracula,” “The Rainmaker” and, the much-maligned, “Jack” to get out of debt and fund “Megalopolis”. That’s how important the upcoming film is to him.
Some believe the arduous shoot of “Apocalypse Now” broke and changed the man, and with that, his cinema as well. Regardless, soon after the ‘Apocalypse’ shoot, Coppola took ideas he’d been brainstorming for a new film and started writing the script for “Megalopolis,” which he finally screened, for the first time, this past week.
Coppola lost more than $100M on "Megalopolis," got hammered for it, and he knows the clock is running out for one more film. If "Glimpses of the Moon" is that film, someone needs to write the check soon.