Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola says the release of his long-gestating dream project “Megalopolis” is looking unlikely this year.
Speaking with Deadline recently about the challenges of independently producing and financing the film, the famed “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” director spoke about the project and indicated it is proceeding as planned.
In the film, the fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this story of a New York woman which is divided between loyalties to her father, who has a classical view of society, and her lover, who is more progressive and ready for the future.
A report emerged in January that the film’s Atlanta set was ‘absolute chaos’ due to a turnover in its visual effects and art departments. Star Adam Driver and later Coppola dismissed the chatter, and he did so again here:
“A rumor starts out; there was a report about chaos. But the source was no source. From my point of view, I was on schedule, which, on a big, difficult movie, is hard to do. I love my actors, and there is not one of them I would change.
The movie has a style that went beyond my expectations. That’s sincerely how I feel. The most important thing is the life the film might have when eventually it cuts together and blossoms.”
The film is still very early in the post-production phase with the edit coming together over the next few months. Coppola says he’s not rushing it and so doesn’t expect it’ll be ready in time for awards season:
“I’m not looking for a distributor as much as a distribution partner because the movie has already been made and financed. It has to be in theaters for its initial opening; it’s the way it’s designed to look and behave. I’m most interested right now in arriving at the edit when it’s the film I want. My guess is it’s not coming out this year, so we’ll see.”
Whomever releases it, Coppola certainly sounds very pleased with how the final product has turned out:
“I am grateful to be in the position to be able to make a film that haunts me and that I feel will be wonderful, that will shed light on the subject of what the future might be like and what human beings are really like. I am as happy as I could be.”
Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, DB Sweeney, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Bailey Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, James Remar, and Giancarlo Esposito star in the film.
