Francis Ford Coppola really wants to make his next film, “Glimpses of the Moon,” a 30s-style musical that sounds just as eccentric as “Megalopolis.”
Back in March, Coppola told the Tetragrammaton podcast that he was firmly installed in the UK and in pre-production mode on ‘Glimpses.’ However, there’s been no movement since. I’ve asked around, but total radio silence on the project.
Turns out — to the shock of absolutely no one — Coppola can’t find the money to finance his next project.
Now, we have an update. Speaking with Deadline, the legendary filmmaker confirmed that ‘Glimpses,’ an “unusual musical” adapted from an Edith Wharton novel, is written and “ready to go immediately.” The catch? Unlike “Megalopolis,” he needs someone else to foot the bill. Coppola calls it a “modestly budgeted” film, though it’s unclear what that actually means when coming from a guy who just spent north of $120 million out of pocket on his last movie.
Well, the thing is, I used my last hundred million dollars […] I know it sounds funny, but usually people who do things like this have a billion dollars. This was my last … well it was $120 million, more than intended. Financially, it’s a little complicated.
No kidding. “Megalopolis” — a wildly ambitious and deeply polarizing project — reportedly left Coppola with over $100M in losses. A passion play for the 86-year-old auteur. To complicate matters, Coppola is refusing streaming deals, citing the need for it to be exclusively seen on the big screen.
As for ‘Glimpses,’ it’s said to center on married couples who amicably split up, only to discover that letting go isn’t as easy as they’d imagined. Coppola claims he’s already shot a few scenes and that the script is “filled with Noël Coward songs” and features a new ending that replaces what he calls the “weak ending” of Wharton’s source novel.
Coppola clearly wants to get this made — the question is: who’s going to write the check?
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.