After months shrouded in controversy – and 40 years within the making – Francis Ford Coppola’s function Megalopolis will debut at Cannes movie pageant in Could.
The movie, a ardour challenge, which the Godfather and Apocalypse Now director has funded with $120m of his personal cash, has been in improvement since 1983 when Coppola wrote the primary model of the screenplay.
Within the many years since, it has been introduced, delayed and deserted a number of occasions – with footage even shot then discarded in a number of cases.
Starring Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman, in addition to Coppola’s sister Talia Shire and his nephew Jason Schwartzman, the movie will lastly premiere in a gala slot at Cannes on 17 Could, Selection experiences.
“I’ve recognized Francis for the reason that centenary of cinema in 1995, and once I had my first yr at Cannes, he got here to current Apocalypse Now Redux,” Cannes director Thierry Frémaux instructed Selection. “Megalopolis is a challenge that he needed to realize for therefore lengthy and he did it independently, in his personal method, as an artist.”
Megalopolis wrapped manufacturing final yr. Plot particulars stay obscure, although it has lengthy been thought of a tough beast to movie: an epic that spans historical historical past and a cataclysmic future, riddled with esoterica and tortuous ideas.
Megalopolis’s official logline describes it as a “story of political ambition, genius and conflicted love” the place “the destiny of Rome haunts a contemporary world unable to unravel its personal social issues”.
In March, the movie screened for potential consumers – together with Common, Netflix and Sony – in an business occasion hosted at Common CityWalk Imax. In line with the Hollywood Reporter, responses have been blended, starting from a glowing commendation to 1 studio head placing it bluntly: “It’s so not good, and it was so unhappy watching it.”
No distributor is at the moment connected to the movie.
Early final yr, the Hollywood Reporter wrote of an nameless supply who mentioned the Megalopolis set was “absolute insanity” attributable to a excessive workers turnover, an escalating funds and visible results points.
Coppola and Driver each denied the allegations. “We’re on schedule,” Coppola instructed Deadline. “I really like the actors and the look is nice, I don’t know what anybody’s speaking about right here.”
Driver later wrote in an announcement: “I’ve been on units that have been chaotic and this one is way from it.”
Cannes appears a pure match for Coppola’s challenge: he premiered Apocalypse Now on the pageant in 1979, which had a equally beleaguered manufacturing course of earlier than its rise to acclaim after its Cannes look.
This yr’s Cannes will run 14 to 25 Could, with the total choice of movies to be revealed on Thursday. Already locked in to debut outdoors of competitors embody George Miller’s Mad Max prequel Furiosa, in addition to opening evening function The Second Act, starring Léa Seydoux and Vincent London as actors in an absurdist meta-comedy directed by well-liked French film-maker Quentin Dupieux.
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