Francis Ford Coppola is a legend by any measure, directing such films as The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, but he has been keeping a low profile in recent years. His last movie was 2011’s experimental Twixt, which not many people bothered to try and figure out. Now as he nears the age of 80, Coppola is ready to embark on what may be his biggest film yet.
Deadline reports Coppola is eyeing to film this year his long-in-the-works project Megalopolis, which tells the sprawling story of an architect who aims to build a utopia within New York City, only to have his plans confronted by the mayor. Jude Law is being mentioned as a possible star. Coppola has been plotting this for years, and says it will be the culmination of the many experimental forays throughout his career…
“So yes, I plan this year to begin my longstanding ambition to make a major work utilizing all I have learned during my long career, beginning at age 16 doing theater, and that will be an epic on a grand scale, which I’ve titled Megalopolis. It is unusual; it will be a production on a grand scale with a large cast. It makes use of all of my years of trying films in different styles and types culminating in what I think is my own voice and aspiration. It is not within the mainstream of what is produced now, but I am intending and wishing and in fact encouraged, to begin production this year.”
No further details are available, but if this is to possibly be Coppola’s swansong he’s making it an ambitious one.
