Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most respected filmmakers in the world, but he hasn’t been behind the camera since 2011’s experimental horror, Twixt. Now all of these years later, he’s embarking on his long-awaited passion project, Megalopolis, and the director is ready to start talking about the cast he hopes will lead it.
Speaking with Deadline, Coppola sounds like a veteran director who is optimistic about the future of cinema, a rarity considering the doom ‘n gloom of some of his peers…
“At this age, I have to tell you, I am more enthusiastic and excited about the cinema and what it means and what it can be and even with all of the new digital aspects of it, which I think are being misused.”
He then confirmed two of the stars he’s aiming to cast, and as expected Coppola is aiming high…
“I mean, we made the offer now to several actors . I can’t say they’ve accepted, but they were very enthusiastic. One of them is Jude Law and another Shia LaBeouf. I may shortly have my lead actress.”
Megalopolis is said to center on an architect who hopes to turn New York City into a utopia, but is repeatedly thwarted by the mayor. The film has long been a pet project for Coppola, but development of it came to a halt after 9/11, for obvious reasons.
Coppola recognizes the changing landscape of the movie industry, and is ready to exist in it as things stand now. While financing has yet to be locked down, he does suggest a few possible partners for distribution that probably won’t come as a surprise…
“But as you know, in the next five years the whole film industry is going to be owned by Apple, Facebook, Amazon. One of those newly emerged media giants is intrigued by the idea.”
He added, “Studios pretty much don’t do these movies [like ‘Megalopolis’] anymore. Even when they do, they don’t finance them.”
Sounds like Megalopolis could arrive in a streaming format which, honestly, is pretty disappointing if it doesn’t include a theatrical component. At the age of 80, Coppola is likely winding down his career and this may be the last movie we see from him. It deserves to be on the big screen.
