Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis to Premiere at Cannes

The highly-anticipated new movie is still searching for a distributor.

By Jenna Anderson

Megalopolis, the mysterious new film from legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, has just landed a major honor. On Tuesday, reports indicated that Megalopolis is confirmed to be premiering and competing at the Cannes Film Festival, with the film locked in for the evening slot on Friday, May 17th. Coppola has a bit of a history with Cannes, previously screening an incomplete cut of Apocalypse Now at the festival in 1979 and ultimately winning its top prize, the Palme d'Or, alongside The Tin Drum. 

Recent reports have revealed that Megalopolis is still searching for a distributor, after Coppola held a screening of the film late last month for studio executives and other members of the entertainment industry. The film is reportedly still aiming to be released in theaters at some point in the fall of 2024, with an "emphasis" being put on IMAX screens.

What Is Megalopolis About?

The plot of Megalopolis largely remains under wraps, but the film is reportedly set in an alternate reality version of New York City dubbed "New Rome." In the film, the fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius and conflicted love. Coppola has been wanting to make Megalopolis a reality since 1979, after initially conceiving of the idea during the filming of Apocalypse Now. While multiple iterations of the film have been in the works across several decades, the project eventually became a reality after Coppola sold part of his wine company to fund the $120 million production costs himself.

"Somewhere down the line, way after I'm gone, all I want is for them to discuss [Megalopolis] and, is the society we're living in the only one available to us?" Coppola said in a 2022 interview. "How can we make it better? Education, mental health? What the movie really is proposing is that utopia is not a place. It's how can we make everything better? Every year, come up with two, three or four ideas that make it better."

"I would be smiling in my grave if I thought something like that happened, because people talk about what movies really mean if you give them something," Coppola continued. "If you encouraged people to discuss marriage and education and health and justice and opportunities and freedom and all these wonderful things that human beings have conceived of. And ask the question, how can we make it even better? That would be great. Because I bet you they would make it better if they had that conversation."

Who Is in the Cast of Megalopolis?

The ensemble cast for Megalopolis includes Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Giancarlo Esposito Dustin Hoffman, DB Sweeney, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Bailey Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, and James Remar.

"It's kind of undefinable, which feels very general until you watch the movie," Driver revealed in an interview earlier this year. "Then my answer will be perfect. There's not a lot of precedent for it and it's wild on a big scale, which is what's really unique about it."

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What do you think of the latest update surrounding Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis? Are you excited for the film? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

h/t: Deadline

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