Deadline is reporting that,on the eve of his 80th birthday, Francis Ford Coppola is not calling it quits and is ready to finally make “Megalopolis.” The script is ready, and casting is next. Long known as his dream project, for close to three decades, the plan is for him to direct the film, according to Mike Fleming Jr. who spoke directly to Coppola today.
Coppola to Fleming: “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. 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.”
Coppola hasn’t directed a movie since 2011’s “Twixt,” which was part of his black and white trilogy which also included 2007’s “Youth Without Youth,” and 2009’s “Tetro.” Those were homemade movies, more than anything else, but Coppola hasn’t dabbled in the studio system since 1997’s “The Rainmaker,” which makes today’s news all the more shocking. I would bet either Netflix or Amazon gave him the budget to make “Megalopolis” come to fruition.
Stay tuned.