Francis Ford Coppola claims he rewrote ‘Megalopolis’ “300 times”
Francis Ford Coppola has revealed he rewrote his upcoming film, Metropolis, 300 times. The sci-fi is set to premiere at Canne Film Festival next month.
Metropolis has been decades in the works for Coppola, but the film finally came to fruition when the director decided to fund it himself, selling off part of his winery business to do so. The ambitious project finally wrapped up production last spring and is set to premiere at Cannes Film Festival in May. It will mark Coppola’s first film in over a decade, since the release of Twixt in 2011.
Somewhere amidst delays to the lengthy production process, Coppola ended up rewriting the script for Megalopolis hundreds of times. “Early on,” he remembered in a recent statement provided to Vanity Fair, “I remember once I took 130 blank pages and put on a title page boldly announcing Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, and under that, All Roads Lead to Rome.”
“I pretended it wasn’t totally blank,” he continued, “weighing it in my hands so I could imagine what one day it would feel like, and believe one day it could exist.”
From there, the legendary director would continually rewrite the script for Megalopolis in hopes of perfecting it. “Then later, once I had a draft, I must have rewritten it 300 times,” he remembered, “hoping each rewrite would improve it, if only a half percent better.”
The finalised screenplay will be taken on by an impressive ensemble of actors with Adam Driver at the forefront. Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman and Nathalie Emmanuel are amongst the star-studded supporting cast.
The director isn’t the only Coppola taking part in the production. His sister, actor Talia Shire, will appear in Megalopolis, alongside her son Jason Schwartzman, who has become well-known for his consistent collaborations with Wes Anderson.
Coppola is no stranger to a project with ambitious scope and epic proportions. His filmography already includes some all-time greats, including the iconic The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, which is widely considered to be one of the greatest war films in cinematic history.
Between a mammoth ensemble cast, Coppola’s personal passion for the project and the scope of his previous films, Megalopolis seems set to become another classic in his cinematography.
The film will premiere at Cannes Film Festival on May 17th, 2024. A theatrical release date for the picture is yet to be confirmed.
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