Francis Ford Coppola is detailing just how influential late icon James Gandolfini was on “Megalopolis.”
Coppola told Rolling Stone that his long-gestating script for the epic was almost greenlit back in 2001. During that time, Coppola conducted table readings of an earlier “Megalopolis” draft with actors Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Edie Falco, and Uma Thurman. While none of these stars appear in the 2024 feature, it turns out that “Megalopolis” has a deeper “Sopranos” connection beyond just Falco being part of the initial ensemble.
“The Sopranos” lead star Gandolfini actually was also part of that first table reading, and gave feedback on the script. Gandolfini was cast in the co-lead role as the mayor; Giancarlo Esposito now stars as the character in the film.
“It was the pregnant version of it, but it wasn’t all that similar,” Coppola said. “There were different periods where I took stabs at it. What’s the name of the actor in ‘The Sopranos,’ the main one? He gave me a lot of great suggestions, actually. He read the part of the mayor back when I did a reading of a draft in 2001.”
The film was stalled after 9/11 happened, though.
“Here I’m making a movie about utopia and the world in which we achieve this breakthrough that I am so hopeful about, and then a huge terrorist attack happens. I couldn’t write my way out of it,” Coppola said. “So I abandoned the project.”
Of course, Gandolfini went on to make TV history in HBO series “The Sopranos,” which Coppola deemed “incredible.”
“[Creator David Chase] wanted to be a moviemaker, and you can see all of these cinematic influences in the show. And then he raised television storytelling to the level of movies, and maybe surpassed them,” Coppola said of the show. “It’s kind of amazing.”
Coppola later returned to “Megalopolis” after appearing on Anthony Bourdain’s travel series with an episode set in “Sicily.”
“When I eventually saw the episode, I thought, ‘I look like a whale.’ This is not healthy for me,” Coppola said. “I signed myself up for this five-month program at Duke Fitness Center, where [‘The Godfather’ writer] Mario Puzo had gone a few times, and lost close to 50 pounds. You don’t see any 85-year-old, 300-pound men running around. But on the days where it would be these strict exercise regimens, I started listening to some of the readings of ‘Megalopolis’ just for the hell of it, and thought, ‘This feels more relevant than ever.’ I realized that even though the script was 20 years old, I could still do it.”
