Yes, you will get to see 'Megalopolis'- eventually
There’s worry about whether Francis Ford Coppola’s big film will get significant distribution. There’s a good chance someone will take a chance on it.
It’s been quite a road for Megalopolis, the film from legendary director Francis Ford Coppola that finished filming last year, especially for a movie that only a few hundred people have seen.
Coppola has reportedly had the film in his head since the 1970s, with its production having various fits and starts over the ensuing four decades. Coppola finally filmed in 2022 and 2023, allegedly spending as much as $100 million of his own money to make his first big-budget movie in more than 20 years, which would implicitly close out the 85-year-old’s career.
The film boasts a wild and eclectic cast that includes the likes of Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, SNL’s Chloe Fineman, Coppola’s sister Talia Shire and his nephew Jason Schwartzman.
There were reports of trouble on the set — indeed a continuing theme throughout Coppola’s career, even for his greatest movies — and then, last week, in late March, there was a report that Megalopolis had its first screening for distributors and others in the industry.
What is the report from that screening, per Variety? The movie is “batshit”- and there’s some skepticism about the film’s commercial prospects. While the film is set to premiere in Cannes next month, it does not yet have distribution:
“Some people felt it was, ‘Here’s boobs, here’s drugs.’ But the decadence has a larger context for Coppola, it feels a bit like a cautionary tale about where America is headed,” said that viewer.
The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, stated that Coppola faces an “uphill battle” to get distribution, at least with the marketing budget that Coppola would prefer:
While there was no shortage of curious suitors there — in addition to Rothman and Sarandos, Warner Bros.’ Pam Abdy, Disney live-action boss David Greenbaum, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Paramount’s Marc Weinstock were all spotted — multiple sources inside the screening tell The Hollywood Reporter that Megalopolis will face a steep uphill battle to find a distribution partner. Says one distributor: “There is just no way to position this movie.”
“Everyone is rooting for Francis and feels nostalgic,” adds another attendee. “But then there is the business side of things.”
I get the sense that someone, at some point, will reach a deal to distribute this film, and we will all get to see it. It might be for less money than Coppola wants, with as many marketing dollars behind it as he would prefer.
Maybe it’ll be foreign money, an obscure distributor, or someone else out of left field. But this film is too intriguing, with too much going for it not to have someone take a chance.
Trouble on the sets of Coppola’s movies was the subject of the excellent 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, about the making of Apocalypse Now. That was directed by the filmmaker’s wife, Eleanor, who passed away last week at 87.