Francis Ford Coppola Didn’t Want MEGALOPOLIS To Be a “Woke Hollywood Production" So He Cast “Canceled” Actors

Megalopolis writer and director Francis Ford Coppola recently talked about the production of his upcoming sci-fi film Megalopolis and how he didn’t want his movie to be considered some kind of of “woke Hollywood production,” so he cast actors who were considered “canceled”.

During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Coppola explained: “What I didn’t want to happen is that we’re deemed some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers.

“The cast features people who were canceled at one point or another. There were people who are arch conservatives and others who are extremely politically progressive. But we were all working on one film together. That was interesting, I thought.”

The film stars Adam Driver, and it tells an intriguing story of an architect dreaming of a utopian version of New York City in the near future and his battle with the conservative mayor, who has other ideas about the city.

Contained within the epic is a myriad of storylines and characters. “The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition.”

The rest of the cast includes actors such as Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman who have all raised eyebrows.

LaBeouf is currently dealing with a lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend and singer-songwriter FKA Twigs over allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

As for Hoffman, he was accused of sexual harassmendt of a 17-year-old intern who he worked on the set of 1985’s Death of a Salesman TV film.

Then there’s Voight who is a Republican and a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, and that has been a point of contention in his relationship with daughter Angelina Jolie.

Coppola went on to say: “This steers me toward politics, and my publicist will yell at me if I start talking about politics. This movie won’t cure our ills. But I honestly believe that what will save us is the fact that we’ve got to talk about the future.

“We want to be able to ask any questions we have to ask in order to really look at why this country is divided right now, and that’s going to provide an energy that will defeat those people who want to destroy our republic.

“I made this film to contribute to that. And all I want is for this movie to start a conversation. You can’t have a utopia without a conversation.”

Coppola described the film as “a love story. A woman is divided between loyalties to two men. But not only two men. Each man comes with a philosophical principle.

“One is her father who raised her, who taught her Latin on his lap and is devoted to a much more classical view of society, the Marcus Aurelius kind of view.

“The other one, who is the lover, is the enemy of the father but is dedicated to a much more progressive ‘Let’s leap into the future, let’s leap over all of this garbage that has contaminated humanity for 10,000 years. Let’s find what we really are, which are an enlightened, friendly, joyous species.’”

Coppola also talked about the film and his goal with it, saying: “My first goal always is to make a film with all my heart, so I began to realize it would be about love and loyalty in every aspect of human life.”

He explained: “Megalopolis echoed these sentiments, in which love was expressed in almost crystalline complexity, our planet in danger and our human family almost in an act of suicide, until becoming a very optimistic film that has faith in the human being to possess the genius to heal any problem put before us.”

The filmmaker added: “I believe in America. Our founders borrowed a constitution, Roman law, and senate for their revolutionary government without a king. American history could neither have taken place nor succeeded without classical learning to guide it.”

The cast for the film also includes Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Laurence Fishburne, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, James Remar, Talia Shire, Chloe Fineman (Saturday Night Live), Isabelle Kusman (Licorice Pizza), D.B. Sweeney (Fire in the Sky), Bailey Ives, and Giancarlo Esposito.

Lionsgate will release the movie on September 27th, 2024.

Source: Deadline