Francis Ford Coppola Is Willing to Fund His $100+ Million Sci-Fi Film Dream Project MEGALOPOLIS Himself
Director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Outsiders, The Conversation) has been working on an ambitious sci-fi epic titled Megalopolis since the ‘80s. This is a dream project for the filmmaker and over 20 years ago he even shot second-unit footage of Manhattan architecture and street sounds. A couple of years ago he announced that he was finally going to make the film and then COVID hit and there hasn’t been much movement… until now.
The 212-page script tells the story of 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 shot a lot of second unit footage of architecture and street sounds and scenes for the film back in the early 2000s, but the project was brought to a halt after 9/11.
The film has previously been described as follows, “The mayor is dedicated to preserving the heritage of the past, while an architect-planner is dedicated to leaping into the future. When a massive renovation project is planned for an area running from 8th Avenue to the Hudson riverbank and from 34th to 20th streets, it becomes the nexus of a battle over vision, scale and profits, involving ‘every layer of society from workers, labor unions, the man on the street to the idea men, the money men and all those involved with them.”
Coppola, who is 82-years-old, is so determined to make this movie that he’s willing to fund it himself. The budget for the project is $100 to $120 million and according to a recent report he is “deep discussions with a stellar cast of actors eager to work with the director of The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now!, The Conversation and other classics, on a seminal picture that is decades in the making.”
Some of the actors he’s in talks with include Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett, Jon Voight, Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jessica Lange. He will also reunite with James Caan (The Godfather ).
Coppola got the money to fund the movie by selling a portion of his vineyard holdings in Sonoma County to Delicato Family Wines, Coppola “has fortified his resources to borrow against, and is ready to gamble once again on his vision to make a movie he feels can be a North Star for a younger audience, and society in general, searching for optimism in a moment where global warming is taking its toll, and polarizing politics and digital misinformation are so pronounced that half the country is resisting Covid vaccines that scientists honed in a remarkably short time to combat a global pandemic.”
The filmmaker shared in a statement, “It has become like a religious war, in that it’s not about anything logical. I think the big news here is that I am still the same as I was 20 years ago or 40 years ago. I’m still willing to do the dream picture, even if I have to put up my own money, and I am capable of putting up $100 million if I have to here. I don’t want to, but I will do it if I have to.”
He goes on to say that he’s committed to making this movie and shares, “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.”
He then went on to share the influence of the film and the dream of it, “everyone wants to make the next Marvel movie, but no one wants to make a picture that really talks to young people in a hopeful way, that we are in a position to get together and solve any problem thrown at us. That is what I believe, and it is what the theme of the picture really is. Utopia is talking about how we can make the society we live in solve these problems. I believe it is an exciting change from the kinds of movies being offered to the public. Mainly because it puts forward a fundamental message that it’s time for us to consider that the society we live in isn’t the only alternative available to us. And that utopia isn’t so much a little experimental place in the country; utopia is a discussion of people, asking the right questions on if the society we’re living in is the only alternative or, if for the sake of young people, there are better choices that should be discussed. That is the influence I dream of this movie having. And for that reason I am willing and capable of investing at a high number, to make it come true. I’m putting together the means of doing that.”
The story for the movie also has its origins in ancient Rome. Coppola explains, “The concept of the film is a Roman epic, in the traditional Cecile B. DeMille or Ben-Hur way, but told as a modern counterpart focusing on America. It’s based on The Catiline Conspiracy, which comes to us from ancient Rome. This was a famous duel between a patrician, Catiline, and that part will be played by Oscar Isaac, and the famous Cicero, who will be Forest Whitaker. He is now the beleaguered mayor of New York, during a financial crisis, close to the one that Mayor Dinkins had. This story takes place in a new Rome, a Roman epic sent in modern times. The time set is not a specific year in modern New York, it’s an impression of modern New York, which I call New Rome.”
This definitely sounds like the kind of movie I’d love to see! Coppola certainly has a grand vision of this movie and I really hope that he actually gets out there and makes it! This could seriously be an incredible movie.
Source: Deadline