Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola, 2024)

[beamish14]

Megalopolis casting underway, and details about how he intends to finance it. I can't imagine that an A-list cast wouldn't get the bulk of this paid for by a streamer
or studio, and he has suggested in the past that George Lucas would support it as well.

[DarkImbecile]

Coppola on Megalopolis in GQ:

It is a film called Megalopolis, and Coppola has been trying to make it, intermittently, for more than 40 years. If I could summarize the plot for you in a concise way, I would, but I can't, because Coppola can't either. Ask him. “It's very simple,” he'll say. “The premise of Megalopolis? Well, it's basically… I would ask you a question, first of all: Do you know much about utopia?”

The best I can do, after literally hours talking about it with him, is this: It's a love story that is also a philosophical investigation of the nature of man; it's set in New York, but a New York steeped in echoes of ancient Rome; its scale and ambition are vast enough that Coppola has estimated that it will cost $120 million to make. What he dreams about, he said, is creating something like It's a Wonderful Life—a movie everyone goes to see, once a year, forever. “On New Year's, instead of talking about the fact that you're going to give up carbohydrates, I'd like this one question to be discussed, which is: Is the society we live in the only one available to us? And discuss it.”

[captveg]

If one is gonna end their career* with a bang, might as well go out with self-financing at $120m

(Been wanting to see what Megalopolis is myself ever since seeing it listed as a potential Coppola project in some mid-90s cinema magazine.)

* - though Coppola isn't saying this is his final film; he's far more optimistic

[Never Cursed]

Megalopolis will begin a six-month schedule of filming in New York and Atlanta this September - confirmed cast includes Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett, Jon Voight, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, James Caan, and Zendaya

[DarkImbecile]

Megalopolis will begin a six-month schedule of filming in New York and Atlanta this September - confirmed cast includes Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett, Jon Voight, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, James Caan, and Zendaya

Zendaya was apparently unconfirmed despite the Production Weekly listing as she’ll be shooting Dune Part II

[Never Cursed]

That's true, but there's gotta be a way to schedule around that and she (and Coppola) would have every incentive to find a way to do so

[swo17]

Is there no one that could be the Julia Stiles to her Erika Christensen?

[domino harvey]

Finally, Zennightya’s time to shine

[Matt]

Is there no one that could be the Julia Stiles to her Erika Christensen?

Aja Bair (this only makes sense to people who have seen episodes 7 and 8 of Euphoria season 2)

[therewillbeblus]

Ha! That would be great

[domino harvey]

Adam Driver will star in Megalopolis, presumably in the Oscar Isaac role. Also no James Caan for obvious reasons

[therewillbeblus]

Megalopolis cast finalized, with a few new additions: Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, James Remar. Dustin Hoffman, Chloe Fineman, Isabelle Kusman, D.B. Sweeney, Bailey Ives.

[beamish14]

Megalopolis cast finalized, with a few new additions: Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, James Remar. Dustin Hoffman, Chloe Fineman, Isabelle Kusman, D.B. Sweeney, Bailey Ives.

The first film to feature mother/son Shire and Schwartzman, I think. A Midnight Cowboy reunion. D.B. Sweeney working with Coppola for the first time since Gardens of Stone. Very interesting

I’m sure this film must have some kind of negative pickup deal like Costner’s Horizon that will significantly minimize Coppola’s financial risk

[The Narrator Returns]

Megalopolis cast finalized, with a few new additions: Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, James Remar. Dustin Hoffman, Chloe Fineman, Isabelle Kusman, D.B. Sweeney, Bailey Ives.

Aubrey Plaza as well, she was previously announced and Deadline accidentally left her out of the list.

[dekadetia]

[The first film to feature mother/son Shire and Schwartzman, I think.

They appeared together in David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabees.

[yoloswegmaster]

Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ in Peril Amid Ballooning Budget, Crew Exodus

Francis Ford Coppola’s latest movie, the sci-fi-tinged Megalopolis, has descended into chaos, according to multiple sources. The movie, currently halfway through shooting in Atlanta, has in the last week lost key creative talent including its production designer and supervising art director. That’s on top of losing the entire visual effects team in the first part of December.

Sources say Coppola, who has never made an effects-heavy movie, fired almost his entire visual effects team Dec. 9, with the rest of that department soon following. Mark Russell, a veteran whose credits include In the Heights and The Wolf of Wall Street, was leading the team as visual effects production supervisor. (Coppola famously fired his special effects department on Dracula 30 years ago.)

More recently, production designer Beth Mickle and supervising art director David Scott have departed. Between firings and resignations, a source says the film now has no art department. Russell, Mickle and Scott did not respond to requests for comment.

[DarkImbecile]

To many insiders, the production is giving severe Apocalypse Now redux vibes, and it’s one on which the iconoclastic 83-year-old director is breaking a cardinal Hollywood rule: Never spend your own money.

So this will also be one of the best movies ever made, then?

[Computer Raheem]

Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ in Peril Amid Ballooning Budget, Crew Exodus

Francis Ford Coppola’s latest movie, the sci-fi-tinged Megalopolis, has descended into chaos, according to multiple sources. The movie, currently halfway through shooting in Atlanta, has in the last week lost key creative talent including its production designer and supervising art director. That’s on top of losing the entire visual effects team in the first part of December.

Sources say Coppola, who has never made an effects-heavy movie, fired almost his entire visual effects team Dec. 9, with the rest of that department soon following. Mark Russell, a veteran whose credits include In the Heights and The Wolf of Wall Street, was leading the team as visual effects production supervisor. (Coppola famously fired his special effects department on Dracula 30 years ago.)

More recently, production designer Beth Mickle and supervising art director David Scott have departed. Between firings and resignations, a source says the film now has no art department. Russell, Mickle and Scott did not respond to requests for comment.

According to this article, one of the main reasons the film is going over-budget is because Coppola was utilizing the VFX volume that's all the rage at the moment - the plan now is to transition to tradition greenscreen work. Hopefully, this issue is less an Apocalypse Now and more a Bram Stoker's Dracula (more in terms of a smoother production than in terms of quality)

[tolbs1010]

To many insiders, the production is giving severe Apocalypse Now redux vibes, and it’s one on which the iconoclastic 83-year-old director is breaking a cardinal Hollywood rule: Never spend your own money.

So this will also be one of the best movies ever made, then?

The tell-all documentary will be even better. MegaFlopolis: A Filmmaker's Abyss

[willoneill]

To many insiders, the production is giving severe Apocalypse Now redux vibes, and it’s one on which the iconoclastic 83-year-old director is breaking a cardinal Hollywood rule: Never spend your own money.

So this will also be one of the best movies ever made, then?

The tell-all documentary will be even better. MegaFlopolis: A Filmmaker's Abyss

Apparently Mike Figgis is on set documenting everything.

[bad future]

Coppola responds: "ha, ha, just wait and see." Plus an (imo) impressively full-throated co-sign from Adam Driver!

[beamish14]

So this will also be one of the best movies ever made, then?

The tell-all documentary will be even better. MegaFlopolis: A Filmmaker's Abyss

Apparently Mike Figgis is on set documenting everything.

That is VERY intriguing. I wonder if Figgis was the one to approach him about doing it.

Some set pics with Aubrey Plaza and Adam Driver

[therewillbeblus]

Some listings say 129 minutes and 139 minutes, but this article suggests it will be around the same runtime of 88 minutes just with a different edit. It also seems like a bunch of adult film actors(?!) who weren't in the first film are listed in this one- so I have no idea what to expect. Hope we hear more concrete news soon.

To add to the uncertainty, these three divergent runtime listings still exist in some places, but BR.com updated theirs to 95 mins, and this new listing drops down to 79 mins. I'm not finding any sources for these changes either. Spooky!

[Never Cursed]

Megalopolis screened for distributors today in LA, with Deadline reporting that the film runs 133 minutes without credits - in other words, it’s ready for Cannes, should they decide to take it

[therewillbeblus]

That’s exciting, and it’s hard to imagine a reason not to