Francis Ford Coppola is Looking to Start Production on His Ambitious Sci-Fi Film Project MEGALOPOLIS

Francis Ford Coppola hasn’t made a movie in eight years. The last film he made was an experimental film project called Twixt. He’s been developing several projects over the years, but nothing has come from them. But, it looks like he’s looking to start production on a sci-fi epic called Megalopolis.

The script for this project was actually first written in the 80s and the story follows an architect dreaming of a utopic version of New York City in the near future and his battle with the conservative mayor, who has other ideas of the city. Contained within the epic are a myriad of storylines and characters.

Coppola actually started shooting second unit footage in preparation for the film in the early 2000’s but that all came to a halt after 9/11 happened.

When talking to Deadline about the project, Coppola says:

“So yes, I plan this year to begin my longstanding ambition to make a major work utilizing all I have learned during my long career, beginning at age 16 doing theater, and that will be an epic on a grand scale, which I’ve entitled Megalopolis. It is unusual; it will be a production on a grand scale with a large cast. It makes use of all of my years of trying films in different styles and types culminating in what I think is my own voice and aspiration. It is not within the mainstream of what is produced now, but I am intending and wishing and in fact encouraged, to begin production this year.”

There have been a lot of big name actors attached to this project over the years including Warren Beatty, Parker Posey, Robert De Niro, Russell Crowe, Nicolas Cage, Paul Newman, James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Claire Danes, Kevin Spacey, and Meryl Streep. As of right now, Jude Law is looking at joining the project as one of the many available roles.

If you want more detailed information on the project, Niles Schwartz has outlined a detailed history, and this is a excerpt:

Coppola wrote a first draft during a rush of inspiration in 1983: a 400-page screenplay-as-novel about an architect determined to design the city of the future. Coppola’s utopian science-fiction film, constantly revised throughout the next two decades, details art’s aspirations and bureaucracy’s stagnancy as the libertine architect and scientist Serge Catiline is embroiled against the virtuous and conservative Mayor Frank Cicero. With his discovery of an adaptable material, “molecular-modulated polymers,” called “megalon,” Catiline’s team believes that their new city design will wipe out the need for a labor force.

The thought of Francis Ford Coppola directing an epic sci-fi project like this is exciting and I’m happy to hear that it’s moving forward. I can’t wait to see what comes of it!