Crowned with his two Palmes d’Or, Francis Ford Coppola returns to the Croisette with Megalopolisa film with a pharaonic budget presented this Thursday in the official selection.
After secret conversationPalme d’Or in 1974, and Apocalypse nowPalme d’Or in 1979, the 85-year-old director competes for a third prize with an ambitious and highly anticipated film.
It is a film about “a man who has a vision of the future” and talks about the “conflict” between this vision and the “traditions of the past,” Coppola confided in 2019, at the Lumière Festival, where he was honored.
“I would say it’s my most ambitious movie, even more ambitious than ‘Apocalypse Now.'”
A project in progress for 40 years
This film, set in a city in full decline, similar to New York, is a true sea serpent, which Francis Ford Coppola has been trying to make for 40 years. The idea for this film germinated in the director’s mind in 1979, and a first version of the script in 1983, according to M le Mag. 20 years of financial difficulties followed, then external events such as September 11, which postponed the making of the film. project, which would not take shape until 2019.
Presented as a 2 hour 18 science fiction film, Megalopolis revolves around the destruction of a megalopolis and its reconstruction that unfolds between a visionary architect (Adam Driver) and the city’s corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito, in another villainous role).
His first film in 13 years.
Highly anticipated by festival goers and movie buffs, Megalopolis It also marks the return to the screen of Coppola, whose last production dates back to 2011. It is Twixta horror film starring Val Kilmer and Elle Fanning, with a much more modest budget than Megalopolis.
A pharaonic budget financed by Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola himself financed the $120 million budget of Megalopolis. To do this, he mortgaged the lucrative vineyards that he bought in the 1970s in the Napa Valley, California.
A crazy casting
For this gigantic film, Francis Ford Coppola assembled a brilliant cast. Actress Nathalie Emmanuel revolves around Adam Driver and Giancarlo Esposito, revealed for her role in Game of Thrones, Shia Labeouf, Aubrey Plaza (The white lotus), Laurence Fishburne, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight and Jason Schwartzman.
Brilliant testament film or slow and disproportionate work? The press makes its predictions and has just published testimonies from members of the production that describe a chaotic filming. Megalopolis was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, between November 2022 and April 2023.
Because if Adam Driver said at the end of 2023 that he “loved filming” with Coppola, others have had more contrasting experiences. The specialized magazine The Hollywood Reporter already echoed this in January 2023, revealing an “exodus” within the team, fueled by resignations and layoffs, and “completely crazy” filming.
Presented in preview at Cannes, the film does not yet have a release date.
Source: BFM TV
