“The Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola was already working on his dream project “Megalopolis” in the 1980s. Despite numerous setbacks, he has not given up on the mammoth sci-fi project. He allegedly paid $100 million out of his own pocket to bring the film to the big screen. In the end, he not only had a big budget and a promising cast, but he was actually able to start filming at the end of 2020. It all sounds very romantic and fairytale – but apparently things don’t run smoothly on set…
“Megalopolis” tells the story of an architect who wants to rebuild the city of New York completely destroyed by a catastrophe and do it better than before. He dreams of a gigantic, futuristic utopia and does not want to let interpersonal problems deter him from his vision.
The shooting of “Megalopolis” now seems to be developing as gigantic as the new New York in the movie. In fact, it seems to be getting out of handas The Hollywood Reporter claims to have learned from several insiders…
“Megalopolis” breaks all budget limits
Above all, the budget must be completely out of control. Coppola wanted Megalopolis to have lots of visual effects, the latest technology used in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, and a great cast. But apparently he has already spent more money than he actually had available. Currently, it is not even certain whether the film can be shot at all.
Coppola reportedly fired the entire visual effects team in early December and moved to a more cost-effective greenscreen production. In addition, several well-known production designers are said to have resigned. As a result of the departures, the art department would also no longer exist. This includes the staff of the props, set design and scenography. There are no official statements about this yet. Coppola is reportedly undeterred by the setbacks and is looking to hire new people this week.
Is Megalopolis now Coppola’s new apocalypse?
As is known, Francis Ford Coppola knows his way around chaotic shoots. Finally the way to his masterpiece was “Apocalypse now“ also pretty rocky and is now a real legend. The cost of the war drama also exploded and the shooting itself was anything but easy. A typhoon destroyed the sets, actor Martin Sheen (“The Way”) had a heart attack and had to take a long break, the crew was on quite a few drugs – just to name a few problems. The film “Journey into the Heart of Darkness” shows the circumstances under which “Apocalypse Now” came about – a documentary that became almost as famous as Coppola’s film itself.
›› “Journey to the Heart of Darkness” on Amazon Prime Video*
But the legendary war film at least proves that great chaos does not have to result in bad films. It remains to be seen if “Megalopolis” will end up being a masterpiece akin to “Apocalypse Now” – if the movie is even finished.
In any case, an interesting project is “Megalopolis”. Not only the vision of the filmmaker, also the cast sounds impressive. In addition to “Star Wars” villain Adam Driver and Aubrey Plaza (“The White Lotus”), there are also Oscar winners Forest Whitaker (“Rogue One”), Jon Voight (“Mission: Impossible”), Shia LaBeouf (“Transformers”), Nathalie Emmanuel (“Game Of Thrones”) and Laurence Fishburne (“Matrix”) are there.
has a start datemegalopolis” not yet.
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