Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded, forty years in the making epic Megalopolis is reportedly struggling to secure a distribution deal.
Having screened for some major power players in the industry, including Warner Bros., Netflix, and Paramount, The Hollywood Reporter claims that the presentation was met with a muted response, with sources revealing to the outlet that “there is just no way to position this movie.”
The legendary director of The Godfather Trilogy funded the $120 million-budgeted movie by selling part of his lucrative wine-making business, and had hoped that distributors would be so impressed with the finished film that they’d stump up the marketing costs of approximately $100 million when it came to the theatrical roll-out, but responses such as “It’s so not good, and it was so sad watching it. Anybody who puts P&A behind it, you’re going to lose money. This is not how Coppola should end his directing career” isn’t going to have suitors clamouring for the rights.
Reactions to Megalopolis weren’t all negative, with one audience member exclaiming “I liked it enormously” but there appears to be trepidation when it comes to backing the film’s release, with another source revealing that “everyone is rooting for Francis and feels nostalgic, but then there is the business side of things.”
Another attendee of the March 28 screening backed up the uncertainty by saying “Does it wobble, wander, go all over the place? Yes. But it’s really imaginative and does say something about our time. I think it’s going to be a small, specialized label [that picks it up].”
Per THR’s story, the cut screened to the distributors clocks in at two hours and 15 minutes, and follows the rebuilding of a metropolis after its accidental destruction, with two competing visions — one from an idealist architect (Adam Driver), the other from its pragmatist mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) — clashing in the process. Megalopolis also stars Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, and Dustin Hoffman.
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