Francis Ford Coppola on His Epic Sci-Fi Film MEGALOPOLIS and How People Will Spend Years Trying to Figure it out
Francis Ford Coppola is currently developing his dream project, a sci-fi epic titled Megalopolis. He’s been developing this film since the 80s and with no studio wanting to finance it, Coppola is self-financing the $120 million budget himself.
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.
In a recent interview with GQ, Coppola opened up about the movie, shared some details, and talked about how people will be trying to figure out the film for years to come.
Coppola also calls the film “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.’”
The cast for the film includes Oscar Isaac, James Caan, Zendaya, Cate Blanchett, Michelle Pfeiffer, Forest Whitaker, Jon Voight, and Jessica Lange, and he’s hoping to start production sometime later this year.
When talking about the future of the film and the impact he hopes it will have on audiences, the director said, “On New Year’s, instead of talking about the fact that you’re going to give up carbohydrates, I’d like this one question to be discussed, which is: Is the society we live in the only one available to us? And discuss it.”
So, does he want this movie to be a yearly viewing experience for people so that could discuss it and the message it carries every year? He went on to say, “I know that Megalopolis, the more personal I make it, and the more like a dream in me that I do it, the harder it will be to finance. And the longer it will earn money because people will be spending the next 50 years trying to think: What’s really in Megalopolis? What is he saying? My God, what does that mean when that happens?”
Is this movie going to have that much of an impact on people where they will be studying and discussing it over the next 50 years? I really hope so! We don’t see a lot of movies like that made these days. When talking about the state of Hollywood these days, Coppola went on to say, “There used to be studio films. Now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different.”
Coppola is trying to do something different and unique with this next film of his and I seriously hope he pulls it off and makes an incredible film that keeps people talking over the next 50 years! I’m rooting for Coppola!