CANNES 2024 - remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

Nathalie Emmanuel (in black), Adam Driver (in car), on the set of COPPOLA'S MEGALOPOLIS, Jan. '23. GETTY IMAGES

Is Francis Ford Coppola's MEGALOPOLIS going to be a historic flop - or a sleeper classic?

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He was aged 80 when he began on it. It was his first film since 2010 when he delivered TWIXT, the third of three "small" (ca. $10 million) commercial failures. He first began writing on it in 1983.

He mortgaged part of his (now successful) Sonoma County vineyards to raise the $150 and it was shot in Augusta, Georgia.

He had long wanted to make this movie. It was a story based on ancient Roman history. Something starring Adam Driver, a struggle to rebuild a destroyed New York-like city.

He invited a handpicked crowd of family and friends and honchos for an exclusive IMAX screening, No US distributor resulted, and reactions were like "experimental," "confusing." Some think a small company like A24 or Neon might pick it up.

Whatever, it's certainly one of the talked-about movies at Cannes. In France response has been more positive: notorious risk-taker Le Pacte has taken it on. Maybe it will be a sleeper, like APOCALYPSE NOW, rejected by the US Press, which co-won the Palme d'Or with Volker Scheendorf's THE TIN DRUM, and eventulaly became acknowledged as a classic after very limited release.


Coppola on the MEGALOPOLIS set.


First official image from MEGALOPOLIS released by Coppola.