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EXCLUSIVE: On the eve of his 80th birthday, Francis Ford Coppola is ready to embark on one of his dream projects. He plans to direct Megalopolis, a sprawling film as ambitious as Apocalypse Now, that he has been plotting for many years. Coppola revealed this to me today. He has his script, and he has begun speaking informally to potential stars. Ive heard Jude Laws name among those who might potentially be in the movie. I have much to report about Coppolas dream project, and I got to view some of the second unit footage he shot after announcing the project in Cannes, before the terror attacks of 9/11 — the film is set in New York and is an architects attempt to create a utopia in the city, combated by the mayor — ground progress on the film to a halt.
“So yes, I plan this year to begin my longstanding ambition to make a major work utilizing all I have learned during my long career, beginning at age 16 doing theater, and that will be an epic on a grand scale, which Ive entitled Megalopolis,” Coppola told me today. “It is unusual; it will be a production on a grand scale with a large cast. It makes use of all of my years of trying films in different styles and types culminating in what I think is my own voice and aspiration. It is not within the mainstream of what is produced now, but I am intending and wishing and in fact encouraged, to begin production this year.”
This comes after Coppola has locked Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, a version of the film that most pleases the storied director, and which will premiere at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival.
“By having a record of all old cuts on Betamax, I was able to see what steps had been made toward the final version released,” he said. “Interesting, even though Ive had final cut since Godfathers success, I always tried to be reasonable about ideas or suggestions made by the finance partners, distributors or studios. However, their unanimous comment of too long often led to trimming things out, whereas in retrospect the solution can often be to put more in. Also changes often beget other changes and you dont quite realize then the road you are following.
“Given that the Apocalypse original was not only long, but also unusual in style and substance for a film at that time, we tended to cut whenever possible not only in time but also in what then was considered weirdness, ” he said. “Maybe 15 years later I happened to catch a TV viewing of it in a hotel, and as I always enjoyed seeiRead More – Source
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