what we know about Coppola’s “Megalopolis”, the most anticipated film on the Croisette

Fifty years after his first Palme d’Or obtained for “Secret Conversation”, Francis Ford Coppola is one of the names circulating for a big return to the Croisette. He should present the film that has been the subject of much discussion for years, “Megalopolis”.

This is undoubtedly the information we are most looking forward to around the 77th Cannes Film Festival: Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola will be well presented there, according to the director himself who confirms on his Instagram account information from Variety. According to the American magazine, the film will be screened on May 17. In his press conference on April 11, the general delegate of the Cannes Festival Thierry Frémaux should in turn confirm the information by presenting the official selection.

Francis Ford Coppola returns to Cannes

Thirteen years after the release of his last film Twixtaged 85, the director of Godfather and D’Apocalypse Now releases his 23rd feature film. “Francis Ford Coppola built the legend of Cannes and it would be an honor to welcome him back”had already launched Thierry Frémaux, in an interview given to Variety. Coppola therefore chose to present “his monster film” Megalopolisthe festival which gave him two Palmes d’Or, the first for Secret conversation in 1974, the second for Apocalypse Now in 1979.

A monster project

The project, in the making for several decades, with its own budget of more than $100 million, was shot in five months, in Atlanta and New York, according to the magazines Variety And Deadline.

A crazy casting

The casting is up to the task of the pharaonic project: the feature film includes, among others, the actors Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, DB Sweeney, Chloe Fineman , Kathryn Hunter, Jason Schwartzman, Baily Ives, Grace Vanderwaal and James Remar.

Anticipatory story

The story: in the aftermath of a cataclysm, two projects clash in the reconstruction of a city that could be New York. The first is that of Caesar, played by Adam Driver (Star Wars 3rd trilogy, BlacKkKlansman, Annette), an architect who wants a utopia for this city, imagining rebuilding it with renewable materials. The second, opposite, is that of Mayor Frank Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito (Usual Suspects, Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian), a corrupt public procurement strategy. Third character in the story, Julia, played by Nathalie Emmanuel (Fast and Furious, Game of Thrones), the daughter of the city councilor who is looking for meaning in her life, is torn between loyalty to her father and the love she has for the idealistic architect.

First echoes of the film

A first screening of the 2h13 feature film for 300 hand-picked guests was organized at the Universal CityWalk Imax Theater in Los Angeles on March 28. According to a magazine journalist Deadlinepresent during this screening, “ideas flow in this film which deals with both the past and the future, in the form of a visual and epic fable”. Another echo, that of Adam Driver, in the magazine The Face : “It’s quite indescribable, it’s unheard of, it’s quite crazy, and on a disproportionate scale (…), it makes Megalopolis quite unique.”