One of the strangest movies of the year is getting shocking first reactions.

Francis Ford Coppola, director of the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, has been planning his next movie, Megalopolis, since 1979. The story, a sci-fi thriller about an architect who wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating incident, has been evolving over decades, and anyone asked about it seemed to describe a grand, sweeping masterpiece that feels impossible to make. But that didn’t stop Coppola from holding table reads with all-star casts.

Finally, in 2019, Coppola decided not to wait on funders to take a chance on such risky material. Megalopolis became the ultimate creative project, self-funded, written, and directed all by Coppola himself, boasting a cast including Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, and Nathalie Emmanuel. Five years later, the movie was finally screened for potential buyers last week, and reactions were both exciting and confusing.

Sources told Puck’s Matthew Belloni that one attendee said the movie had “zero commercial prospects, and good for him,” and another said it was “unflinching in how batsh*t crazy it is” while Deadline described it as “crackling with ideas that fuse the past with the future, with an epic and highly visual fable that plays perfectly on an IMAX screen.”

  • oxomoxo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    281·
    8 months ago

    The things that makes me sad is the only way something like this can get made in the studios is if the names attached are guaranteed to draw a crowd. Everything else is safe and calculated.

    40 years ago “Hollywood” started to pretend that it was making pencils and not art. That every production had to be a safe sure thing. Let’s all make the McDonald’s hamburger of movies just about every time, we’ll let you take a chance if you break a billion in profit but otherwise we want vanilla predictable serotonin juicers and nothing else…

    I won’t see anything anymore unless it has something new to offer. Otherwise they can all fuck off!

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      101·
      8 months ago

      The things that makes me sad is the only way something like this can get made in the studios is if the names attached are guaranteed to draw a crowd.

      Well this had big names attached and couldn’t get studio funding. As it’s been described as having “zero commercial prospects” I don’t imagine buyers are falling over themselves to pick this up, although it should make it to cinemas eventually.

      • oxomoxo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        8 months ago

        Good point, but it even solidifies what I am saying even more. Even with everything Coppola has done he still had to put up his own money, I mean he did this before with Apocalypse Now and had to mortgage his house.

        Despite running Zoetrope since the early 70s and making a long string of commercial successes, no one wants to front the money.

        Thing is he will probably make more on the backend anyway since he is taking all the risk and once it’s done he’ll have no trouble finding distribution. Hell, he’ll could probably self distribute and make insane amounts of money.

        Hollywood is on a slow track to irrelevance just like TV. Who would have thought that Coppolas famous “fat girl in Ohio” statement would be about himself…

        • CrayonRosary@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          8 months ago

          once it’s done he’ll have no trouble finding distribution.

          It is done and he’s having trouble finding distribution. Did you even read the article?

          Five years later, the movie was finally screened for potential buyers last week, and reactions were both exciting and confusing.

          The salient points from the article were posted right here on Lemmy. You didn’t even have to click the link.

          • oxomoxo@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            8 months ago

            I read part of the article and thought I finished because on mobile it’s broken up by a bunch of advertisements. I missed some details but my point still stands. I am speaking less about this specific project and more about the state of the industry and how it has been diluted.

        • southsamuraiEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          That’s why I love Coppola. Even when he is doing something with a profit driven goal, he thinks of movies as art, and it shows on the screen (big or small). And that’s with not necessarily liking every movie he’s done.

  • TheFriar@lemm.eeEnglish
    10·
    8 months ago

    “Francis, we love it! Everyone here is really excited about it. I haven’t stopped talking about it since—ask Janice! Isn’t that right, Janice? [laughs] We just want to make sure everyone else loves it too, you know? So, there was an idea kicking around the office the other day that I think you’ll be really excited about. Do you think, there is any way, we could, maybe, put iron man in it?”

  • Farid@startrek.websiteEnglish
    8·
    8 months ago

    Huh, didn’t know he looks like midpoint of a transformation from Nicolas Cage to Adam Driver.

  • theodewere@kbin.social
    4·
    8 months ago

    so all an aspiring filmmaker needs to do is build a successful winery first… then you can afford to make your batshit crazy dream…

  • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    8 months ago

    I’m 100% convinced that this is going to be an unbelievable mess of a film. That doesn’t necessarily mean bad, because something can be an interesting mess, but yeah this is for sure going to be a huge mess lol.

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlEnglish
    31·
    8 months ago

    Ah I remember that last great film Coppola had total control over, Apocalypse Now. It had absolutely no problems during it’s filming. None at all. /s

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      I 'member.

      That said, a competent director executing their vision with little studio interference is always memorable. I’d rather watch TPM than Rebel Moon and am tempted to go and see it when it gets a cinematic re-release. I may regret it but it’ll be memorable.