Francis Ford Coppola has been trying to get “Glimpses of the Moon” made for a few years now, but despite casting calls in Italy last October and a planned November 2025 start in Calabria, the production never got underway. The central problem remained financing. Coppola was still trying to raise enough money to make ‘Glimpses.’
Coppola has said he exhausted his personal fortune financing “Megalopolis,” reportedly losing more than $100M. Since then, the film has repeatedly stalled while Coppola has worked on a new, stranger cut of “Megalopolis” and reportedly sold and auctioned valuable personal assets.
The latest Italian reporting is actually positive, indicating that “Glimpses of the Moon” is now moving toward production and might be happening imminently, with a late-August production start.
According to Corriere della Sera, Coppola is expected to arrive in Basilicata at the end of August and shoot in specific locations in Matera, Bernalda, and Montescaglioso before the production finally moves into Calabria. The locations mentioned include Palazzo Malvinni Malvezzi, Matera Cathedral, and the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo.
Coppola has described ‘Glimpses’ as a “strange 30s-style musical.” No cast has been announced so far. This will be a loose adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel of the same name, while also being “inspired” by Leo McCarey’s “The Awful Truth.” Both works explore the story of a married couple who part amicably, only to discover it’s harder to let go than they imagined.
The setting of Coppola’s film, which was originally set in London, will now be 1930s Italy, with a story in which “landscapes, architecture and historical memory will play a central role.”
‘Glimpses’ was, as Coppola previously explained, “funded the conventional way, with the help of national subsidies, because I’m all borrowed out.” While it “won’t be cheap by any means,” he emphasized that, unlike “Megalopolis,” it will not be an “epic.” Last year, when discussing the financial strain of “Megalopolis,” Coppola told Deadline, “I used up my last hundred million dollars.”
Coppola, 87, is not retiring, and despite the “Megalopolis” debacle, refuses to concede defeat. He has another, more ambitious project, titled “Distant Vision,” that he’d love to get funded as well — that one will be far more expensive — but it will likely all depend on whether his ‘Glimpses’ gamble pays off.
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