Throughout his career, the legendary Francis Ford Coppola has made many a masterpiece. The Godfather and its sequel. Apocalypse Now. The Conversation. His place in the cinematic pantheon is secure. But at the age of 84, he’s not resting on his laurels. He’s finally made his long-held passion project Megalopolis – a science-fiction epic he originally started writing back in the ‘80s, and which has rumbled around in his consciousness ever since. And he’s reportedly put $120 million of his own money into making it, an independent film on a gigantic scale with a sprawling cast to boot. It’s hard to believe that the film is actually real at this point – but it’s reportedly hitting our screens later in 2024, and Coppola has shared a tantalising teaser image on his Instagram:
Even from a single image, there’s plenty to look at here – a sense of crumbling empires, though a setting that reads as contemporary New York; the eeriness of those abandoned apartments and broken doors; that ominous broken statue; the grandiosity (and sci-fi leanings) of that title treatment. Consider us almightily intrigued. The film stars Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, and Kathryn Hunter, to name but a fraction of the cast. And it’s both written and directed by Coppola himself.
Stay tuned for more imagery on the film as it moves through post-production – and, fingers crossed, we may see the full thing before the year is through. Here’s hoping it proves worth the wait.