fbpx
Wikipedia

Megalopolis (film)

April 11, 2024

Megalopolis is an upcoming American epic science fiction drama film written, directed, and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The film features an ensemble cast, including Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, Talia Shire, Dustin Hoffman and D. B. Sweeney. Filming began in November 2022 and concluded in March 2023.

Megalopolis
Official logo
Directed byFrancis Ford Coppola
Written byFrancis Ford Coppola
Produced by
  • Francis Ford Coppola
  • Michael Bederman
Starring
CinematographyMihai Mălaimare Jr.[1]
Edited byGlen Scantlebury[2]
Music byOsvaldo Golijov[3]
Production
company
Release date
  • May 17, 2024 (2024-05-17) (Cannes)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$120 million[4]

The film will have its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2024.[5]

Premise edit

An accident destroys a New York City-like metropolis already in decay. An architectural idealist, Caesar, aims to rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia, while the mayor, Frank Cicero, has other plans consistent with his corruption, greed and lust for power. Coming between the opposing men and their visions is Frank's socialite daughter, Julia. Tired of the attention and power she was born with, she searches for meaning in her life.[5]

Cast edit

Production edit

Development edit

 
Writer, director, and producer Francis Ford Coppola in 2001

Francis Ford Coppola conceived the idea for Megalopolis during the filming of Apocalypse Now (1979); sound designer Richard Beggs described Coppola's vision as a "gigantic opera, shown over four nights in some place as close as possible to the geographical center of the United States – and people would come from all over, as they do to Bayreuth".[6]: 181  Coppola devoted the beginning of 1983 to write the screenplay, assembling four hundred pages of notes and script fragments in two months.[7]: 333  In mid-1983, he described the plot as taking place in one day in New York City with Catiline Rome as a backdrop, similar to how James Joyce's Ulysses used Homer in the context of modern Dublin.[8]: 74 [9]: 215  Biographer Michael Schumacher recalled the filmmaker's intentions in 1989 to endeavor on a film, which "sounded much like what he had in store for Megalopolis," that was "so big and complicated that it would seem impossible," to be shot in Cinecittà, a large film studio in Rome, Italy, where production designer Dean Tavoularis and his design team had built offices and an art studio for drafters to storyboard the film.[7]: 409–410 [10]: 234  The Hollywood Reporter described the story as "swing[ing] from the past to the present," merging "the images of Rome ... with the New York City of today".[7]: 410 

Following the 1990–91 film awards season for The Godfather Part III (1990), Coppola's film production company, American Zoetrope, announced several projects in development, including plans to film Megalopolis in 1991, despite lacking a finished script.[7]: 436  However, the film was postponed to "no earlier than 1996" after Coppola found himself prioritizing other projects,[7]: 444  including Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Jack (1996), and The Rainmaker (1997), to get out of debt accumulated from One from the Heart (1982) and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), and fund Megalopolis.[11]: 110 [12] In 2001, he described the film as setting the characters of the Catilinarian conspiracy in modern New York: "In many ways what it's really about is a metaphor—because if you walk around New York and look around, you could make Rome there," adding: "Ultimately what's at stake is the future, because it takes the premise that the future, the shape of things to come, is being determined today, by the interests that are vying for control ... we already know what happened to Rome. Rome became a fascist Empire. Is that what we're going to become?"[13]

Jim Steranko, who previously created production illustrations for Bram Stoker's Dracula, produced concept art for Megalopolis at Coppola's behest, described in James Romberger's master's thesis as "expansive, elaborate and carefully rendered pencil or charcoal halftone architectural drawings of huge buildings and urban plazas that appeared to mix ancient Roman, art deco and speculative sci-fi stylizations".[14]: 54  By 2001, Coppola began holding table reads with actors, including Nicolas Cage (Coppola's nephew), Russell Crowe, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Edie Falco, James Gandolfini, Paul Newman, Kevin Spacey, and Uma Thurman.[15] Other actors considered for roles included Matt Dillon and Parker Posey,[16]: 262  though Coppola dispelled rumors that he had written a part specifically for Warren Beatty.[17] Locations proposed for the film included Montreal and New York, with a budget pitched at $50–70 million, and "no more than $80 [million]".[16]: 263 [17][18] That year, he also recorded roughly 30 hours of second unit footage of New York City with Ron Fricke, all of which he discarded after the September 11 attacks, including more footage he shot two weeks after, before declaring, in October, his plans to rewrite the script.[16]: 263 [18] In 2002, Coppola announced that his next project as a director would be Megalopolis and shot material for the film on high-definition video that George Lucas described as "wide shots of cities with incredible detail at magic hour and all kinds of available-light material".[19][16]: 263  He also disclosed that sixty to seventy hours of second unit footage had been shot in Manhattan and his intent to self-finance the film which, partially inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and Alexander Korda's Things to Come (1936), would utilize "some extraordinary new technology".[20][21][22]: xv [23]: 82 

However, the project was abandoned soon after. The success of his winery and resort company meant Coppola could produce the film with his own money, which a close friend of his, Wendy Doniger, said "paralyzed him": "He had no excuse this time if the film was no good. What froze him was having the power to do exactly what he wanted so that his soul was on the line."[24] To help, she gave him books that she deemed thematically relevant, including Mircea Eliade's Youth Without Youth, a novella about a 70-year-old man struggling to complete an ambitious project. Coppola then decided to shelve Megalopolis to self-finance a small-scale adaptation of the book, with the intent of it being "the opposite of Megalopolis".[23]: 85 [24] In 2006, Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov, who composed Youth Without Youth, said Coppola had asked him to write a symphony for Megalopolis that would have "dictated the rhythm of the film".[25] In 2007, Coppola admitted that 9/11 "made it really pretty tough ... a movie about the aspiration of utopia with New York as a main character and then all of a sudden you couldn't write about New York without just dealing with what happened and the implications of what happened. The world was attacked and I didn't know how to try to do with that. I tried".[12] In 2009, in regards to the likelihood of revisiting the film, he said: "I feel pleased to have written something ... Someday, I'll read what I had on Megalopolis and maybe I'll think different of it, but it's also a movie that costs a lot of money to make and there's not a patron out there. You see what the studios are making right now."[26]

Pre-production edit

Coppola announced his return to the project in April 2019,[27] having approached Jude Law and Shia LaBeouf for lead roles.[28][29] He reportedly spent $120 million of his own money and sold a "significant piece of his wine empire" to produce the film.[30] By August 2021, discussions with actors to star in the film had begun; James Caan was set to star while Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett, Jon Voight, Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jessica Lange were in various stages of negotiations.[31] By March 2022, Coppola's sister, Talia Shire, expressed her interest in joining the cast,[32] and Isaac was reported to have passed on the project.[33] By May, the budget was reported to be under $100 million,[34] while Whitaker and Voight were confirmed for the cast, with Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Laurence Fishburne added.[34] On July 6, Caan, who was still in negotiations for the film,[35] died.[36]

Pre-production had begun by mid-July 2022, with Mihai Mălaimare Jr. serving as cinematographer.[37] In August, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, and James Remar joined the cast, with Shire and LaBeouf confirmed to be part of the cast.[37][38][39] Chloe Fineman, Madeleine Gardella, Isabelle Kusman, D. B. Sweeney, Bailey Ives, and Dustin Hoffman would be added in October.[40] In January 2023, Giancarlo Esposito was added to the cast.[41]

In a series of Instagram posts in July 2023, Coppola shared a list of books that the film had been heavily influenced by, including Bullshit Jobs (2018), The Dawn of Everything (2021), and Debt: The First 5000 Years (2011) by anthropologist David Graeber; The Chalice and the Blade (1987) by sociologist Riane Eisler; The Glass Bead Game (1943) by Hermann Hesse; The Origins of Political Order (2011) by Francis Fukuyama; The Swerve (2011) by Stephen Greenblatt; and The War Lovers (2010) by Evan Thomas.[42]

Filming edit

 
Megalopolis was shot at Trilith Studios in Georgia from 2022 to 2023

Principal photography began at Trilith Studios in Georgia on November 1, 2022,[43] with set photos of LaBeouf and Emmanuel filming in Atlanta published on November 8,[44] and was due to finish in March 2023.[45] The film was originally shot using OSVP technology at Prysm Stage, Trilith Studios,[46] but "as the challenges and costs of that approach have mounted, the production is attempting to pivot to a less costly, more traditional greenscreen approach".[4]

By January 2023, the film was halfway into filming when reports indicated the budget ballooned higher than its original $120 million,[4] which journalists compared to the production issues of Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979).[4][47][48][49] Due to the reported "unstable filming environment", several crew members exited the film, including production designer Beth Mickle, art director David Scott, and visual effects supervisor Mark Russell, along with the rest of the visual effects team.[4] Coppola and Driver contested the report, saying that while there was some turnover in crew, the production was on schedule, on budget, and going smoothly.[50] At the same time, filmmaker Mike Figgis directed a behind-the-scenes documentary on the production of Megalopolis.[51] The documentary will accompany the film's release and will feature interviews with George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg.[52] Driver finished filming his part in early March.[53] Filming wrapped on March 30, 2023.[54]

In August 2023, during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, the film received an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA, possibly for re-shoots.[55][56]

Release edit

The film is scheduled to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2024.[5]

Coppola saw the film in full for the first time on an IMAX screen at the company's headquarters in Playa Vista, Los Angeles. The film used camera technology for certain scenes that could cover an entire IMAX screen.[57] On March 28, 2024, a private screening of the film was presented to distributors at the Universal CityWalk IMAX Theater in Hollywood.[58] Coppola and his longtime attorney Barry Hirsch, a producer on the film, expressed that they would not make a final decision where to debut the film until a distribution partner was secured and a firm rollout plan was put in place.[58] Initial reactions deemed the film divisive while some were mixed,[59] though others were primarily of general bewilderment.[60] Deadline Hollywood's Mike Fleming Jr. wrote the film is "crackling with ideas that fuse the past with the future, with an epic and highly visual fable that plays perfectly on an IMAX screen".[58] The film was further described as a mix of "Ayn Rand, Metropolis, and Caligula",[60] and about a civilization teetering on a "precarious ledge, devouring itself in a whirl of unchecked greed, self-absorption, and political propaganda".[61]

The "muted" response made securing a distributor difficult for the film as studios weighed the return on investment, as Coppola expected a studio to commit to a print-and-advertising (P&A) campaign of $80–100 million. A distribution veteran told The Hollywood Reporter: "I find it hard to believe any distributor would put up cash money and stay in first position to recoup the P&A as well as their distribution fee. If [Coppola] is willing to put up the P&A or backstop the spend, I think there would be a lot more interested parties."[57] In April 2024, the film secured a spot to premiere in competition at that year's Cannes Film Festival in May.[5]

Marketing edit

In an interview with GQ in 2022, Coppola gave more insight, elaborating that the film is "a love story".[42] "A woman is divided between loyalties to two men. But not only two men. Each man comes with a philosophical principle. One is her father who raised her, who taught her Latin on his lap and is devoted to a much more classical view of society, the Marcus Aurelius kind of view. The other one, who is the lover, is the enemy of the father but is dedicated to a much more progressive 'Let's leap into the future, let's leap over all of this garbage that has contaminated humanity for 10,000 years. Let's find what we really are, which are an enlightened, friendly, joyous species'," he explained.[42]

At the Ischia Global Film & Music Festival in July 2023, Figgis, who met Coppola through Cage, gave additional details as to what to expect when it comes to the film and the behind-the-scenes documentary. He described the film as "Julius Caesar meets Blade Runner", saying: "It is a futuristic film, set in a New York that will be called New Rome; at its center an architect who wants to rebuild the utopian metropolis after a disaster. It's very philosophical, but also veers towards political satire. Francis is obsessed with Roman history, its roots. I will document everything, from our chats to the long waits on the huge set and also the well-known problems that occurred during production, including layoffs, a story emphasized by the press."[52]

References edit

  1. ^ Williams, David E. (March 30, 2023). "ASC Welcomes Mălaimare as New Member". American Society of Cinematographers. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  2. ^ "Glen Scantlebury, ACE Resume" (PDF). Murtha Skouras Agency. March 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  3. ^ Nance, Suzanne (October 19, 2022). "Interview with Composer Osvaldo Golijov". All Classical Radio. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e Masters, Kim; Feinberg, Scott; Couch, Aaron (January 9, 2023). "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis in Peril Amid Ballooning Budget, Crew Exodus (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. from the original on January 9, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d Fleming, Mike Jr. (April 9, 2024). "Francis Coppola's Megalopolis Locks Competition Slot at 77th Cannes Film Festival: The Dish". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  6. ^ Cowie, Peter (April 20, 2001). The Apocalypse Now Book. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306810468.
  7. ^ a b c d e Schumacher, Michael (October 19, 1999). Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0517704455.
  8. ^ Thomson, David; Gray, Lucy (September–October 1983). "Idols of the King" (PDF). Film Comment. 19 (5): 61–75. JSTOR 43452924. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  9. ^ Chown, Jeffrey (May 20, 1988). Hollywood Auteur: Francis Coppola. Praeger. ISBN 0275929108.
  10. ^ Cowie, Peter (August 22, 1994). Coppola: A Biography. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306805981.
  11. ^ Cowie, Peter (January 1, 1997). The Godfather Book. Gardners Books. ISBN 0571190111.
  12. ^ a b Knowles, Harry (May 8, 2007). "Harry sits down in Austin with Francis Ford Coppola and talks Youth Without Youth, Seventies film, Wine, Tetro and the Coppolas". Ain't It Cool News. from the original on November 14, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  13. ^ Coppola, Francis Ford (1999). "Writing and Directing The Conversation: A Talk with Francis Ford Coppola". Scenario (Interview). Vol. 5, no. 1. Interviewed by Ann Nocenti. p. 186–187.
  14. ^ Romberger, James H. (September 2017). The Conflict of Progressive and Conservative Tendencies in the Film Work of Steranko (M.A. thesis). CUNY Academic Works. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  15. ^ Handy, Bruce (April 1, 2010). "The Liberation of Francis Ford Coppola". Vanity Fair. from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  16. ^ a b c d Clarke, James (January 1, 2003). Virgin Film: Coppola. Virgin Pub. ISBN 0753508664.
  17. ^ a b Archerd, Army (July 17, 2001). "Coppola prepping Megalopolis". Variety. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  18. ^ a b Lyons, Charles (October 16, 2001). "Megalopolis plans shifted". Variety. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  19. ^ Vaucher, Andrea R.; Harris, Dana (February 24, 2002). "Zoetrope, Myriad plan 3 pics". Variety. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  20. ^ Macnab, Geoffrey (September 26, 2002). "Back from the brink". The Guardian. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  21. ^ Kerch, Steve (November 5, 2003). . Urban Land Institute. Archived from the original on December 7, 2003. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  22. ^ Phillips, Gene D.; Hill, Rodney, eds. (September 20, 2004). Francis Ford Coppola: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1578066662. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  23. ^ a b Delorme, Stéphane (October 1, 2010). Francis Ford Coppola. Cahiers du Cinéma. ISBN 978-2866425937.
  24. ^ a b Keegan, Rebecca (November 7, 2007). "Coppola, Take 2". Time. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  25. ^ Church, Michael (February 14, 2006). "Osvaldo Golijov: Composing the soundtrack for a Coppola movie". The Independent. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  26. ^ Buchanan, Kyle (June 3, 2009). . Movieline. Archived from the original on June 11, 2009. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  27. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (April 3, 2019). "Francis Ford Coppola Ready to Make Megalopolis and Is Eyeing Cast". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  28. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (May 13, 2019). "Francis Ford Coppola: How Winning Cannes 40 Years Ago Saved Apocalypse Now, Making Megalopolis, Why Scorsese Almost Helmed Godfather Part II & Re-Cutting Three Past Films". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on May 16, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  29. ^ Sun, Rebecca (October 8, 2019). "Francis Ford Coppola Signs with CAA". The Hollywood Reporter. from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  30. ^ Baron, Zach (February 17, 2022). "Francis Ford Coppola's $100 Million Bet". GQ. from the original on March 4, 2022. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
  31. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (August 31, 2021). "Francis Coppola, A Gambling Maverick Moviemaker Who Won Big, Betting on Star Cast for Epic Megalopolis". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  32. ^ Gardner, Chris (March 3, 2022). "Francis Ford Coppola Explains Why He's Spending His Own $120M on Megalopolis". The Hollywood Reporter. from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  33. ^ Friedman, Roger (March 21, 2022). "Exclusive: Oscar Isaac Passes on Godfather Director Francis Ford Coppola's $120 Mil Megalopolis, Director Wants to Shoot This Fall". Showbiz411. from the original on March 22, 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
  34. ^ a b Fleming, Mike Jr. (May 12, 2022). "Francis Coppola Sets Megalopolis Cast: Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight & Filmmaker's Apocalypse Now Teen Discovery Laurence Fishburne". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  35. ^ McCall, Kevin (July 14, 2022). "Francis Ford Coppola's Passion Project Megalopolis to Shoot in Georgia". Collider. from the original on November 2, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  36. ^ Dagan, Carmel (July 8, 2022). "James Caan, The Godfather and Misery Star, Dies at 82". Variety. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  37. ^ a b Raup, Jordan (August 23, 2022). "Aubrey Plaza Joins Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis, Confirmed to Shoot this Fall". The Film Stage. from the original on September 16, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  38. ^ Kroll, Justin (August 22, 2022). "Aubrey Plaza Joins Adam Driver in Francis Coppola's Megalopolis". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on November 26, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  39. ^ Couch, Aaron (August 31, 2022). "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis Casts Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman and More". The Hollywood Reporter. from the original on August 31, 2022. Retrieved August 31, 2022.
  40. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (October 4, 2022). "Francis Coppola Sets Final Casting for Epic Megalopolis; Film Shooting This Fall in Georgia". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  41. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (January 23, 2023). "Giancarlo Esposito Joins Cast of Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on January 24, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
  42. ^ a b c Rinder, Grant (January 22, 2024). "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis Might Actually Come Out This Year. Here's Everything We Know". GQ. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  43. ^ "Megalopolis". Production List. Film & Television Industry Alliance. October 10, 2022. from the original on November 6, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  44. ^ McArdle, Tommy (November 8, 2022). "Shia LaBeouf Spotted Filming on Atlanta Set of Francis Ford Coppola's Epic Megalopolis Movie". People. from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  45. ^ Ho, Rodney (July 13, 2022). "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis with Adam Driver coming to shoot in Georgia". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. from the original on July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.(subscription required)
  46. ^ Klawans, Justin (September 28, 2022). "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis to Film at Prysm Stages in Atlanta Using Groundbreaking Technology". Collider. from the original on November 4, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2022.
  47. ^ Gularte, Alejandra (January 10, 2023). "Francis Ford Coppola Denies Megalopolis Mess". Vulture. from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.(subscription required)
  48. ^ Schimkowitz, Matt (January 10, 2023). "We've reached the crew quitting, budgets exploding part of Megalopolis' production". The A.V. Club. G/O Media. from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  49. ^ McPherson, Christopher (January 10, 2023). "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis Production Reportedly in Peril". Collider. from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  50. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (January 10, 2023). "Francis Ford Coppola: No Truth to Apocalypse on Megalopolis". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  51. ^ Newman, Nick (January 10, 2023). "Francis Ford Coppola and Adam Driver Respond to Megalopolis Rumors; Mike Figgis Plans a Behind-the-Scenes Documentary". The Film Stage. from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  52. ^ a b Ruimy, Jordan (July 11, 2023). "Coppola's Megalopolis Aiming for Cannes 2024, 2-Hour Runtime; Described as 'Julius Caesar Meets Blade Runner'". World of Reel. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  53. ^ Jones, Tamera (March 8, 2023). "Adam Driver Talks 65, Fighting Dinosaurs, and Filming Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis". Collider. from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  54. ^ Welk, Brian (March 30, 2023). "Francis Ford Coppola Wraps Production on Epic Megalopolis". IndieWire. from the original on April 18, 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  55. ^ Kroll, Justin (August 31, 2023). "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis Lands Interim Agreement from SAG-AFTRA". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on August 31, 2023. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  56. ^ Bergeson, Samantha (January 5, 2024). "Francis Ford Coppola Confirms Megalopolis Early 2024 Release: 'Wait and See'". IndieWire. from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  57. ^ a b Abramovitch, Seth; Master, Kim; McClintock, Pamela (April 8, 2024). "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis Faces Uphill Battle for Mega Deal: 'Just No Way to Position This Movie'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  58. ^ a b c Fleming, Mike Jr. (March 28, 2024). "Francis Coppola's Megalopolis Screened for First Time Today for Distributors at CityWalk IMAX". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  59. ^ Bailey, Micah (March 30, 2024). "Francis Ford Coppola's $120M Sci-Fi Just Got a Lot More Exciting & Worrying for the Same Reason". Screen Rant. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  60. ^ a b Northrup, Ryan (March 29, 2024). ""Unflinching in How Bats**t Crazy It Is": Megalopolis Early Reactions Tease Coppola's Truly Bizarre Epic". Screen Rant. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  61. ^ Welk, Brian (April 2, 2024). "As Francis Ford Coppola Seeks Megalopolis Distribution, 'Everything Is on the Table'". IndieWire. Retrieved April 3, 2024.

External links edit

  • Megalopolis at IMDb  

April 11, 2024
megalopolis, film, megalopolis, upcoming, american, epic, science, fiction, drama, film, written, directed, produced, francis, ford, coppola, film, features, ensemble, cast, including, adam, driver, nathalie, emmanuel, giancarlo, esposito, voight, laurence, fi. Megalopolis is an upcoming American epic science fiction drama film written directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola The film features an ensemble cast including Adam Driver Nathalie Emmanuel Giancarlo Esposito Jon Voight Laurence Fishburne Aubrey Plaza Shia LaBeouf Jason Schwartzman Grace VanderWaal Kathryn Hunter Talia Shire Dustin Hoffman and D B Sweeney Filming began in November 2022 and concluded in March 2023 MegalopolisOfficial logoDirected byFrancis Ford CoppolaWritten byFrancis Ford CoppolaProduced byFrancis Ford Coppola Michael BedermanStarringAdam Driver Nathalie Emmanuel Giancarlo Esposito Jon Voight Laurence Fishburne Aubrey Plaza Shia LaBeouf Jason Schwartzman Grace VanderWaal Kathryn Hunter Talia Shire Dustin Hoffman D B SweeneyCinematographyMihai Mălaimare Jr 1 Edited byGlen Scantlebury 2 Music byOsvaldo Golijov 3 ProductioncompanyAmerican ZoetropeRelease dateMay 17 2024 2024 05 17 Cannes CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 120 million 4 The film will have its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 17 2024 5 Contents 1 Premise 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Development 3 2 Pre production 3 3 Filming 4 Release 4 1 Marketing 5 References 6 External linksPremise editAn accident destroys a New York City like metropolis already in decay An architectural idealist Caesar aims to rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia while the mayor Frank Cicero has other plans consistent with his corruption greed and lust for power Coming between the opposing men and their visions is Frank s socialite daughter Julia Tired of the attention and power she was born with she searches for meaning in her life 5 Cast editAdam Driver as Caesar Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero Giancarlo Esposito as Frank Cicero Jon Voight Laurence Fishburne Aubrey Plaza Shia LaBeouf Jason Schwartzman Grace VanderWaal Kathryn Hunter Talia Shire Dustin Hoffman D B Sweeney James Remar Chloe Fineman Madeleine Gardella Isabelle Kusman Bailey Ives Balthazar GettyProduction editDevelopment edit nbsp Writer director and producer Francis Ford Coppola in 2001Francis Ford Coppola conceived the idea for Megalopolis during the filming of Apocalypse Now 1979 sound designer Richard Beggs described Coppola s vision as a gigantic opera shown over four nights in some place as close as possible to the geographical center of the United States and people would come from all over as they do to Bayreuth 6 181 Coppola devoted the beginning of 1983 to write the screenplay assembling four hundred pages of notes and script fragments in two months 7 333 In mid 1983 he described the plot as taking place in one day in New York City with Catiline Rome as a backdrop similar to how James Joyce s Ulysses used Homer in the context of modern Dublin 8 74 9 215 Biographer Michael Schumacher recalled the filmmaker s intentions in 1989 to endeavor on a film which sounded much like what he had in store for Megalopolis that was so big and complicated that it would seem impossible to be shot in Cinecitta a large film studio in Rome Italy where production designer Dean Tavoularis and his design team had built offices and an art studio for drafters to storyboard the film 7 409 410 10 234 The Hollywood Reporter described the story as swing ing from the past to the present merging the images of Rome with the New York City of today 7 410 Following the 1990 91 film awards season for The Godfather Part III 1990 Coppola s film production company American Zoetrope announced several projects in development including plans to film Megalopolis in 1991 despite lacking a finished script 7 436 However the film was postponed to no earlier than 1996 after Coppola found himself prioritizing other projects 7 444 including Bram Stoker s Dracula 1992 Jack 1996 and The Rainmaker 1997 to get out of debt accumulated from One from the Heart 1982 and Tucker The Man and His Dream 1988 and fund Megalopolis 11 110 12 In 2001 he described the film as setting the characters of the Catilinarian conspiracy in modern New York In many ways what it s really about is a metaphor because if you walk around New York and look around you could make Rome there adding Ultimately what s at stake is the future because it takes the premise that the future the shape of things to come is being determined today by the interests that are vying for control we already know what happened to Rome Rome became a fascist Empire Is that what we re going to become 13 Jim Steranko who previously created production illustrations for Bram Stoker s Dracula produced concept art for Megalopolis at Coppola s behest described in James Romberger s master s thesis as expansive elaborate and carefully rendered pencil or charcoal halftone architectural drawings of huge buildings and urban plazas that appeared to mix ancient Roman art deco and speculative sci fi stylizations 14 54 By 2001 Coppola began holding table reads with actors including Nicolas Cage Coppola s nephew Russell Crowe Robert De Niro Leonardo DiCaprio Edie Falco James Gandolfini Paul Newman Kevin Spacey and Uma Thurman 15 Other actors considered for roles included Matt Dillon and Parker Posey 16 262 though Coppola dispelled rumors that he had written a part specifically for Warren Beatty 17 Locations proposed for the film included Montreal and New York with a budget pitched at 50 70 million and no more than 80 million 16 263 17 18 That year he also recorded roughly 30 hours of second unit footage of New York City with Ron Fricke all of which he discarded after the September 11 attacks including more footage he shot two weeks after before declaring in October his plans to rewrite the script 16 263 18 In 2002 Coppola announced that his next project as a director would be Megalopolis and shot material for the film on high definition video that George Lucas described as wide shots of cities with incredible detail at magic hour and all kinds of available light material 19 16 263 He also disclosed that sixty to seventy hours of second unit footage had been shot in Manhattan and his intent to self finance the film which partially inspired by Fritz Lang s Metropolis 1927 and Alexander Korda s Things to Come 1936 would utilize some extraordinary new technology 20 21 22 xv 23 82 However the project was abandoned soon after The success of his winery and resort company meant Coppola could produce the film with his own money which a close friend of his Wendy Doniger said paralyzed him He had no excuse this time if the film was no good What froze him was having the power to do exactly what he wanted so that his soul was on the line 24 To help she gave him books that she deemed thematically relevant including Mircea Eliade s Youth Without Youth a novella about a 70 year old man struggling to complete an ambitious project Coppola then decided to shelve Megalopolis to self finance a small scale adaptation of the book with the intent of it being the opposite of Megalopolis 23 85 24 In 2006 Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov who composed Youth Without Youth said Coppola had asked him to write a symphony for Megalopolis that would have dictated the rhythm of the film 25 In 2007 Coppola admitted that 9 11 made it really pretty tough a movie about the aspiration of utopia with New York as a main character and then all of a sudden you couldn t write about New York without just dealing with what happened and the implications of what happened The world was attacked and I didn t know how to try to do with that I tried 12 In 2009 in regards to the likelihood of revisiting the film he said I feel pleased to have written something Someday I ll read what I had on Megalopolis and maybe I ll think different of it but it s also a movie that costs a lot of money to make and there s not a patron out there You see what the studios are making right now 26 Pre production edit Coppola announced his return to the project in April 2019 27 having approached Jude Law and Shia LaBeouf for lead roles 28 29 He reportedly spent 120 million of his own money and sold a significant piece of his wine empire to produce the film 30 By August 2021 discussions with actors to star in the film had begun James Caan was set to star while Oscar Isaac Forest Whitaker Cate Blanchett Jon Voight Zendaya Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange were in various stages of negotiations 31 By March 2022 Coppola s sister Talia Shire expressed her interest in joining the cast 32 and Isaac was reported to have passed on the project 33 By May the budget was reported to be under 100 million 34 while Whitaker and Voight were confirmed for the cast with Adam Driver Nathalie Emmanuel and Laurence Fishburne added 34 On July 6 Caan who was still in negotiations for the film 35 died 36 Pre production had begun by mid July 2022 with Mihai Mălaimare Jr serving as cinematographer 37 In August Aubrey Plaza Jason Schwartzman Grace VanderWaal Kathryn Hunter and James Remar joined the cast with Shire and LaBeouf confirmed to be part of the cast 37 38 39 Chloe Fineman Madeleine Gardella Isabelle Kusman D B Sweeney Bailey Ives and Dustin Hoffman would be added in October 40 In January 2023 Giancarlo Esposito was added to the cast 41 In a series of Instagram posts in July 2023 Coppola shared a list of books that the film had been heavily influenced by including Bullshit Jobs 2018 The Dawn of Everything 2021 and Debt The First 5000 Years 2011 by anthropologist David Graeber The Chalice and the Blade 1987 by sociologist Riane Eisler The Glass Bead Game 1943 by Hermann Hesse The Origins of Political Order 2011 by Francis Fukuyama The Swerve 2011 by Stephen Greenblatt and The War Lovers 2010 by Evan Thomas 42 Filming edit nbsp Megalopolis was shot at Trilith Studios in Georgia from 2022 to 2023Principal photography began at Trilith Studios in Georgia on November 1 2022 43 with set photos of LaBeouf and Emmanuel filming in Atlanta published on November 8 44 and was due to finish in March 2023 45 The film was originally shot using OSVP technology at Prysm Stage Trilith Studios 46 but as the challenges and costs of that approach have mounted the production is attempting to pivot to a less costly more traditional greenscreen approach 4 By January 2023 the film was halfway into filming when reports indicated the budget ballooned higher than its original 120 million 4 which journalists compared to the production issues of Coppola s Apocalypse Now 1979 4 47 48 49 Due to the reported unstable filming environment several crew members exited the film including production designer Beth Mickle art director David Scott and visual effects supervisor Mark Russell along with the rest of the visual effects team 4 Coppola and Driver contested the report saying that while there was some turnover in crew the production was on schedule on budget and going smoothly 50 At the same time filmmaker Mike Figgis directed a behind the scenes documentary on the production of Megalopolis 51 The documentary will accompany the film s release and will feature interviews with George Lucas Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg 52 Driver finished filming his part in early March 53 Filming wrapped on March 30 2023 54 In August 2023 during the 2023 SAG AFTRA strike the film received an interim agreement from SAG AFTRA possibly for re shoots 55 56 Release editThe film is scheduled to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17 2024 5 Coppola saw the film in full for the first time on an IMAX screen at the company s headquarters in Playa Vista Los Angeles The film used camera technology for certain scenes that could cover an entire IMAX screen 57 On March 28 2024 a private screening of the film was presented to distributors at the Universal CityWalk IMAX Theater in Hollywood 58 Coppola and his longtime attorney Barry Hirsch a producer on the film expressed that they would not make a final decision where to debut the film until a distribution partner was secured and a firm rollout plan was put in place 58 Initial reactions deemed the film divisive while some were mixed 59 though others were primarily of general bewilderment 60 Deadline Hollywood s Mike Fleming Jr wrote the film is crackling with ideas that fuse the past with the future with an epic and highly visual fable that plays perfectly on an IMAX screen 58 The film was further described as a mix of Ayn Rand Metropolis and Caligula 60 and about a civilization teetering on a precarious ledge devouring itself in a whirl of unchecked greed self absorption and political propaganda 61 The muted response made securing a distributor difficult for the film as studios weighed the return on investment as Coppola expected a studio to commit to a print and advertising P amp A campaign of 80 100 million A distribution veteran told The Hollywood Reporter I find it hard to believe any distributor would put up cash money and stay in first position to recoup the P amp A as well as their distribution fee If Coppola is willing to put up the P amp A or backstop the spend I think there would be a lot more interested parties 57 In April 2024 the film secured a spot to premiere in competition at that year s Cannes Film Festival in May 5 Marketing edit In an interview with GQ in 2022 Coppola gave more insight elaborating that the film is a love story 42 A woman is divided between loyalties to two men But not only two men Each man comes with a philosophical principle One is her father who raised her who taught her Latin on his lap and is devoted to a much more classical view of society the Marcus Aurelius kind of view The other one who is the lover is the enemy of the father but is dedicated to a much more progressive Let s leap into the future let s leap over all of this garbage that has contaminated humanity for 10 000 years Let s find what we really are which are an enlightened friendly joyous species he explained 42 At the Ischia Global Film amp Music Festival in July 2023 Figgis who met Coppola through Cage gave additional details as to what to expect when it comes to the film and the behind the scenes documentary He described the film as Julius Caesar meets Blade Runner saying It is a futuristic film set in a New York that will be called New Rome at its center an architect who wants to rebuild the utopian metropolis after a disaster It s very philosophical but also veers towards political satire Francis is obsessed with Roman history its roots I will document everything from our chats to the long waits on the huge set and also the well known problems that occurred during production including layoffs a story emphasized by the press 52 References edit Williams David E March 30 2023 ASC Welcomes Mălaimare as New Member American Society of Cinematographers Retrieved March 30 2024 Glen Scantlebury ACE Resume PDF Murtha Skouras Agency March 2021 Retrieved March 29 2024 Nance Suzanne October 19 2022 Interview with Composer Osvaldo Golijov All Classical Radio Retrieved March 29 2024 a b c d e Masters Kim Feinberg Scott Couch Aaron January 9 2023 Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis in Peril Amid Ballooning Budget Crew Exodus Exclusive The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on January 9 2023 Retrieved January 10 2023 a b c d Fleming Mike Jr April 9 2024 Francis Coppola s Megalopolis Locks Competition Slot at 77th Cannes Film Festival The Dish Deadline Hollywood Retrieved April 9 2024 Cowie Peter April 20 2001 TheApocalypse NowBook Da Capo Press ISBN 0306810468 a b c d e Schumacher Michael October 19 1999 Francis Ford Coppola A Filmmaker s Life Crown Publishing Group ISBN 0517704455 Thomson David Gray Lucy September October 1983 Idols of the King PDF Film Comment 19 5 61 75 JSTOR 43452924 Retrieved March 29 2024 Chown Jeffrey May 20 1988 Hollywood Auteur Francis Coppola Praeger ISBN 0275929108 Cowie Peter August 22 1994 Coppola A Biography Da Capo Press ISBN 9780306805981 Cowie Peter January 1 1997 TheGodfatherBook Gardners Books ISBN 0571190111 a b Knowles Harry May 8 2007 Harry sits down in Austin with Francis Ford Coppola and talks Youth Without Youth Seventies film Wine Tetro and the Coppolas Ain t It Cool News Archived from the original on November 14 2022 Retrieved November 14 2022 Coppola Francis Ford 1999 Writing and Directing The Conversation A Talk with Francis Ford Coppola Scenario Interview Vol 5 no 1 Interviewed by Ann Nocenti p 186 187 Romberger James H September 2017 The Conflict of Progressive and Conservative Tendencies in the Film Work of Steranko M A thesis CUNY Academic Works Retrieved March 29 2024 Handy Bruce April 1 2010 The Liberation of Francis Ford Coppola Vanity Fair Archived from the original on May 11 2021 Retrieved November 14 2022 a b c d Clarke James January 1 2003 Virgin Film Coppola Virgin Pub ISBN 0753508664 a b Archerd Army July 17 2001 Coppola prepping Megalopolis Variety Retrieved April 1 2024 a b Lyons Charles October 16 2001 Megalopolis plans shifted Variety Retrieved April 1 2024 Vaucher Andrea R Harris Dana February 24 2002 Zoetrope Myriad plan 3 pics Variety Retrieved April 1 2024 Macnab Geoffrey September 26 2002 Back from the brink The Guardian Retrieved April 1 2024 Kerch Steve November 5 2003 Coppola The City and His Dreams Famed Director Readies Vision of Future Megalopolis Urban Land Institute Archived from the original on December 7 2003 Retrieved April 1 2024 Phillips Gene D Hill Rodney eds September 20 2004 Francis Ford Coppola Interviews University Press of Mississippi ISBN 1578066662 Retrieved March 29 2024 a b Delorme Stephane October 1 2010 Francis Ford Coppola Cahiers du Cinema ISBN 978 2866425937 a b Keegan Rebecca November 7 2007 Coppola Take 2 Time Retrieved April 1 2024 Church Michael February 14 2006 Osvaldo Golijov Composing the soundtrack for a Coppola movie The Independent Retrieved April 1 2024 Buchanan Kyle June 3 2009 Francis Ford Coppola to Movieline Godfather Never Should Have Had More Than One Movie Movieline Archived from the original on June 11 2009 Retrieved March 29 2024 Fleming Mike Jr April 3 2019 Francis Ford Coppola Ready to Make Megalopolis and Is Eyeing Cast Deadline Hollywood Retrieved April 1 2024 Fleming Mike Jr May 13 2019 Francis Ford Coppola How Winning Cannes 40 Years Ago Saved Apocalypse Now Making Megalopolis Why Scorsese Almost Helmed Godfather Part II amp Re Cutting Three Past Films Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on May 16 2019 Retrieved November 6 2022 Sun Rebecca October 8 2019 Francis Ford Coppola Signs with CAA The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on February 18 2022 Retrieved February 18 2022 Baron Zach February 17 2022 Francis Ford Coppola s 100 Million Bet GQ Archived from the original on March 4 2022 Retrieved March 4 2022 Fleming Mike Jr August 31 2021 Francis Coppola A Gambling Maverick Moviemaker Who Won Big Betting on Star Cast for Epic Megalopolis Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on January 26 2022 Retrieved August 31 2021 Gardner Chris March 3 2022 Francis Ford Coppola Explains Why He s Spending His Own 120M on Megalopolis The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on March 3 2022 Retrieved March 3 2022 Friedman Roger March 21 2022 Exclusive Oscar Isaac Passes on Godfather Director Francis Ford Coppola s 120 Mil Megalopolis Director Wants to Shoot This Fall Showbiz411 Archived from the original on March 22 2022 Retrieved March 29 2022 a b Fleming Mike Jr May 12 2022 Francis Coppola Sets Megalopolis Cast Adam Driver Forest Whitaker Nathalie Emmanuel Jon Voight amp Filmmaker s Apocalypse Now Teen Discovery Laurence Fishburne Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on May 12 2022 Retrieved May 12 2022 McCall Kevin July 14 2022 Francis Ford Coppola s Passion Project Megalopolis to Shoot in Georgia Collider Archived from the original on November 2 2022 Retrieved November 9 2022 Dagan Carmel July 8 2022 James Caan The Godfather and Misery Star Dies at 82 Variety Retrieved March 20 2024 a b Raup Jordan August 23 2022 Aubrey Plaza Joins Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis Confirmed to Shoot this Fall The Film Stage Archived from the original on September 16 2022 Retrieved September 16 2022 Kroll Justin August 22 2022 Aubrey Plaza Joins Adam Driver in Francis Coppola s Megalopolis Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on November 26 2022 Retrieved August 22 2022 Couch Aaron August 31 2022 Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis Casts Talia Shire Shia LaBeouf Jason Schwartzman and More The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on August 31 2022 Retrieved August 31 2022 Fleming Mike Jr October 4 2022 Francis Coppola Sets Final Casting for Epic Megalopolis Film Shooting This Fall in Georgia Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on October 4 2022 Retrieved October 4 2022 Fleming Mike Jr January 23 2023 Giancarlo Esposito Joins Cast of Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on January 24 2023 Retrieved January 24 2023 a b c Rinder Grant January 22 2024 Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis Might Actually Come Out This Year Here s Everything We Know GQ Retrieved March 29 2024 Megalopolis Production List Film amp Television Industry Alliance October 10 2022 Archived from the original on November 6 2022 Retrieved November 6 2022 McArdle Tommy November 8 2022 Shia LaBeouf Spotted Filming on Atlanta Set of Francis Ford Coppola s Epic Megalopolis Movie People Archived from the original on November 9 2022 Retrieved November 9 2022 Ho Rodney July 13 2022 Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis with Adam Driver coming to shoot in Georgia The Atlanta Journal Constitution Archived from the original on July 13 2022 Retrieved July 13 2022 subscription required Klawans Justin September 28 2022 Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis to Film at Prysm Stages in Atlanta Using Groundbreaking Technology Collider Archived from the original on November 4 2022 Retrieved November 4 2022 Gularte Alejandra January 10 2023 Francis Ford Coppola Denies Megalopolis Mess Vulture Archived from the original on January 10 2023 Retrieved January 10 2023 subscription required Schimkowitz Matt January 10 2023 We ve reached the crew quitting budgets exploding part of Megalopolis production The A V Club G O Media Archived from the original on January 10 2023 Retrieved January 10 2023 McPherson Christopher January 10 2023 Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis Production Reportedly in Peril Collider Archived from the original on January 10 2023 Retrieved January 10 2023 Fleming Mike Jr January 10 2023 Francis Ford Coppola No Truth to Apocalypse on Megalopolis Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on January 10 2023 Retrieved January 10 2023 Newman Nick January 10 2023 Francis Ford Coppola and Adam Driver Respond to Megalopolis Rumors Mike Figgis Plans a Behind the Scenes Documentary The Film Stage Archived from the original on January 11 2023 Retrieved January 11 2023 a b Ruimy Jordan July 11 2023 Coppola s Megalopolis Aiming for Cannes 2024 2 Hour Runtime Described as Julius Caesar Meets Blade Runner World of Reel Retrieved March 22 2024 Jones Tamera March 8 2023 Adam Driver Talks 65 Fighting Dinosaurs and Filming Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis Collider Archived from the original on March 8 2023 Retrieved March 8 2023 Welk Brian March 30 2023 Francis Ford Coppola Wraps Production on Epic Megalopolis IndieWire Archived from the original on April 18 2023 Retrieved March 30 2023 Kroll Justin August 31 2023 Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis Lands Interim Agreement from SAG AFTRA Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on August 31 2023 Retrieved August 31 2023 Bergeson Samantha January 5 2024 Francis Ford Coppola Confirms Megalopolis Early 2024 Release Wait and See IndieWire Archived from the original on January 6 2024 Retrieved January 6 2024 a b Abramovitch Seth Master Kim McClintock Pamela April 8 2024 Francis Ford Coppola s Megalopolis Faces Uphill Battle for Mega Deal Just No Way to Position This Movie The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved April 8 2024 a b c Fleming Mike Jr March 28 2024 Francis Coppola s Megalopolis Screened for First Time Today for Distributors at CityWalk IMAX Deadline Hollywood Retrieved March 30 2024 Bailey Micah March 30 2024 Francis Ford Coppola s 120M Sci Fi Just Got a Lot More Exciting amp Worrying for the Same Reason Screen Rant Retrieved March 30 2024 a b Northrup Ryan March 29 2024 Unflinching in How Bats t Crazy It Is Megalopolis Early Reactions Tease Coppola s Truly Bizarre Epic Screen Rant Retrieved March 30 2024 Welk Brian April 2 2024 As Francis Ford Coppola Seeks Megalopolis Distribution Everything Is on the Table IndieWire Retrieved April 3 2024 External links editMegalopolis at IMDb nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Megalopolis film amp oldid 1218341245, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.