Francis Ford Coppola is telling audiences to get ready for his “unusual” epic “Megalopolis.”
The auteur confirmed during the Accutron podcast that his self-financed $120 million-plus film, which wrapped production in March 2023, will be released in 2024.
“It’s only going to be a few months and it’ll be out,” Coppola said, adding, “All I can say is I love the actors in it. It’s unusual, and it’s never boring. Other than that, wait and see.”
“Megalopolis” stars Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, and Dustin Hoffman, with DB Sweeney, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Bailey Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, James Remar, and Giancarlo Esposito rounding out the ensemble cast.
The film landed a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement in August 2023, rumored to be for actors to return for reshoots. “The Godfather” auteur wrote and directed “Megalopolis,” which shot in Atlanta and New York. The official logline for the upcoming film reads: “The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius, and dangerous love.”
Coppola previously described “Megalopolis” as a “love story” in a May 2023 Deadline interview.
“From my point of view, I was on schedule, which, on a big, difficult movie, is hard to do,” Coppola said. “I love my actors, and there is not one of them I would change. The movie has a style that went beyond my expectations. That’s sincerely how I feel. The most important thing is the life the film might have when eventually it cuts together and blossoms.”
A January 2023 report confirmed that visual effects production supervisor Mark Russell, production designer Beth Mickle, and supervising art director David Scott leaving production after the VFX team exited in December 2022. A source told IndieWire that creative differences between Coppola and select crew members led to their respective departures, while actor Driver told IndieWire that production went smoothly regardless.
Driver later teased to Collider that “Megalopolis” definitely “takes a risk” in its storytelling, praising the film for being “so imaginative and big and epic and bold.”
Driver said of Coppola’s production, “Because he financed it himself, it made the shooting process one of the best experiences, if not the best shooting experience, I’ve ever had. There was no excess conversation, there were no people robbing from Peter to pay Paul. It felt like he was in control of the movie that he wanted to make and that was it. It felt like, ‘Oh, this is how movies should be.’ And he is the most generous, philosophical person that I know. I loved that process and making it with him. I love talking to him.”
