Francis Ford Coppola's MEGALOPOLIS is back on

[Hoke Moseley]

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. I’ve heard Jude Law’s name among those who might potentially be in the movie. I have much to report about Coppola’s 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 architect’s 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 I’ve 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 I’ve had ‘final cut’ since Godfather’s 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 don’t 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 seeing the beginning, started watching and ending up seeing the whole film. I realized that just with that time elapsed, that the film was not as weird as I had thought, and had become more ‘contemporary.’ The avant garde art of the present often becomes the ‘wallpaper’ (mainstream) art of the future. That plus many people’s (including distributor’s opinion) that so much great stuff had been cut out, led to what was later called Apocalypse Redux, which actually had a successful theatrical distribution thanks to Harvey Weinstein. But that version had all that had been cut out, restored. Later on, once again, when asked which version I personally wanted to be shown, I often felt that the original 1979 was too abruptly shortened, and Redux was too long, and settled on what I now felt was the perfect version, which is what we’re showing at Tribeca later this month, called Apocalypse Now Final Cut.
Stay tuned.

https://deadline.com/2019/04/francis...ar-1202588167/

Unbelievably great news... (x 2)

[captveg]

Always been curious about this project, so glad to see it's back on the "trying to make it" schedule.

Pass on the third cut of Apocalypse Now, though.

[NARMAK]

Weird to admit i thought he was dead?

Honestly thought he was and succeeded by Sophia Coppola as a film maker.

[Gacivory]

YES!!!!!!!!! I need this in my life!!!!!

[Cremildo]

Whoa. I've always hoped Coppola would announce another movie someday - something small and experimental like Tetro -, but I never thought he'd try to resurrect Megalopolis. Exciting, major news.

[imsounoriginal]

Never heard of this, but I'm interested. Can't even remember the most recent FFC movie I've seen (Rainmaker?).

[Jasonic]

Just yesterday I was thinking of prolific directors who hadn't hit in a while, in which I would like to see at least one last big hurrah out of. And Coppola was the first to come to mind. Really hope this is able to happen.

[jvonl]

Sounds very interesting. But, I will also pass on the "new" cut of Apocalypse...

[Poya]

The theatrical cut of Apocalypse Now is the true cut, Frankie.

[Dr. Pavel]

i hope i'm still alive in 2026 when it comes out

[recS-12]

Welcome news. I hope for the best.

[kwisatzhaderach]

Great news. Even if it turns out flawed it will still be more interesting than 90% of what gets churned out these days. Coppola is a giant.

[Dragon Ranger]

I remember hearing about this years ago and just assumed it would be one of those projects forever lost to time. Really hope this can move forward quickly and that the existing second unit footage they already shot will still be usable giving them a head start.

I can't imagine anything topping Apocalypse Now's theatrical cut (which is amongst my all time favourites with Redux an interesting curio) but I am so endlessly fascinated with the film (it made me read Heart of Darkness for one thing) that I know I will be suckered into buying it so it sits alongside my three disc Blu ray set.

[Hazel Motes]

This is quite possibly the most exciting film announcement for me in a decade. I'm a huge Coppola fan. While I won't argue that the 70's were Coppola at his absolute peak, I've never bought into this too often repeated narrative that he hasn't made anything good since then. The Rain People, One From the Heart, Rumble Fish, The Outsiders, Dracula and Godfather III are all wonderful films. Even films like Peggy Sue Got Married, Gardens of Stone, Tucker The Man and His Dream and The Rainmaker are pretty good. Then when he staged his mini comeback over a decade ago, no one paid him any attention and wrote him off, even though Youth Without Youth was good, Twixt was very good and Tetro was a damn near masterpiece. I was worried he would never make another film after those 3 all flopped. Even though he'd been talking about Megalopolis for decades, I thought it would never happen. I really, really hope it puts an exclamation point on his great career and he can ride off into the sunset as well as John Huston or Krzysztof Kieslowski did.

[Dr. Pavel]

regarding the newest cut of apocalypse now, i'll sure as hell watch it (assuming it gets a home media release) but it sucks to witness coppola changing his mind almost 20 years after all the talk about redux being the closest to his vision. i love redux, it possesses an unbelievable meditative quality.

[badfingerboogie]

Originally Posted by Dr. Pavel

regarding the newest cut of apocalypse now, i'll sure as hell watch it (assuming it gets a home media release) but it sucks to witness coppola changing his mind almost 20 years after all the talk about redux being the closest to his vision. i love redux, it possesses an unbelievable meditative quality.

While the theatrical cut is brilliant in its own way, I do believe that Redux is the true masterpiece of the duo. It's an experience all unto itself.

[Hoke Moseley]

I'm intrigued by the new cut of Apocalypse Now... we already have two masterpiece versions of the movie... possibly one more can't hurt!

[BladeRunner2007]

Very interested in this Final Cut version of Apocalypse Now. It took Ridley Scott 25 years to get his perfect version of Blade Runner released. It took 40 years for Coppola, so what

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by Dr. Pavel

regarding the newest cut of apocalypse now, i'll sure as hell watch it (assuming it gets a home media release)

It's getting a UHD release.

[Poya]

Originally Posted by BladeRunner2007

Very interested in this Final Cut version of Apocalypse Now. It took Ridley Scott 25 years to get his perfect version of Blade Runner released. It took 40 years for Coppola, so what

That’s nothing. Orson Welles had to wait until after he died to get The Other Side of the Wind made.