Francis Ford Coppola is betting big on the next film which could include the talents of Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker, and more. Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most recognizable names in cinematic history, having helmed some of the most iconic films of all time including The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, and Bram Stoker's Dracula just to name a few. The filmmaker has won five Academy Awards across his career.
While his contemporaries like Steven Speilberg, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, and George Lucas continued to make large-scale productions in the 2000s, Coppola took a ten-year hiatus after the release of The Rainmaker in 1997. His return features, Youth Without Youth, Tetro, and Twixt were smaller-scale productions and didn't garner as much attention as his previous work. Despite his legendary pedigree and multiple Oscar wins, Coppola has often found difficulty finding funding for his big passion projects and is one of the many who have been critical of the current state of the film industry.
According to Deadline, Francis Ford Coppola is developing an epic film titled Megalopolis, that will reportedly cost between $100 to $120 million with Coppola looking to finance most of the film himself. He is looking at casting Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett, Jon Voight, Jessica Lange, Zendaya, and Michelle Pfeiffer with Godfather star Scott Cann reportedly signed on. Coppola describes the film as a Roman epic similar to Ben-Hur but set in modern-day New York City. Read what Coppola said regarding the film below:
“I’m committed to making this movie, I’d like to make it in the fall of 2022. I don’t have all my cast approved, but I have enough of them to have confidence that it is going to be a very exciting cast. The picture’s going to cost between $100 million and $120 million. Needless to say, I hope it’s closer to $100 million. I’m prepared to match some outside financing, almost dollar for dollar. In other words, I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is. What’s interesting about that is, there was a documentary about my dream studio, when I owned Zoetrope Studios and I was unafraid to risk everything I had in order to make my dream come true. Well, I really haven’t changed my personality, at all.”
In June 2021, Coppola sold his winery to Delicato Family Wines and the funds from the sale will help fund Megalopolis. Coppola has bet big on his films before and sometimes they have paid off, as was the case with Apocalypse Now. However, in some cases, it doesn't quite work out, as was the case with the release of 1982's One From The Heart resulting in disastrous box-office numbers that forced Coppola to spend the rest of the decade paying off debts and eventually led to Zoetrope Studios filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1990. Regardless, his box-office disappointments have never failed to sour audiences towards his name, and he has always attracted big-name stars to work with him.
Francis Ford Coppola was one of the central figures in the New Hollywood movement of the 1960s and '70s. His films have endured and remained classics for years, and even after all this time, he still does things his own way. Scorsese and Speilberg have found a nice mix of working with streaming platforms and traditional studios, George Lucas is all but retired and focuses on philanthropic endeavors like the creation of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, but Coppola is still looking to take chances as a director at the age of 82. The return of one of the great Hollywood directors like Francis Ford Coppola will make Megalopolis an event picture worth seeing.
Source: Deadline