Aubrey Plaza Joins The Cast Of Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis
Big news just hit the trades (specifically Deadline) that adds yet another name to the cast of Francis Ford Coppola's long-gestating passion project "Megalopolis." This movie has been his white whale for decades and Coppola has finally gotten to a point where he can make it, thanks in large part to his own wealth fueled mostly by his winery. Gotta give the man his due. He's bankrolling this nearly $100 million film himself so as to retain complete artistic control and that's pretty baller.
It's no surprise that a who's who of actors want to work with the "Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" director on this ambitious project. Coppola has already enrolled Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, and Nathalie Emmanuel, and now Aubrey Plaza is joining the ensemble, as well. Very little is known about any of the characters in this movie so we don't know who Plaza is playing, but we do know that we'll probably get some more casting news soon as the production is gearing up for a Fall shoot.
Coppola is putting his money where his mouth is
"Megalopolis" has an interesting history, going back to the 1980s when Coppola had the idea to parallel the fall of Rome and that of a futuristic America in a story that focused on an architect reconstructing New York City after some kind of disaster. It wasn't the kind of thing Hollywood was greenlighting back then and it sure isn't something a major studio would finance today, unless Coppola put some superheroes in it, probably. Not only did he have to face the typical Hollywood accounting and marketing department roadblocks, but then he was faced with real-world events that made a story about the destruction of New York City something of a touchy subject.
We know that Coppola is interested in being an artist more than he is in being a mainstream storyteller and it is totally understandable why he'd want to invest his life's savings in one last epic project that is more than likely going be one of the highest budgeted art films of all time.
There's no telling if this is going to be a good movie or not, but it's always nice to see a visionary filmmaker take a wild swing, and "Megalopolis" will certainly be a wild swing. This is the kind of thing we hoped George Lucas would do with his "Star Wars" riches and he never took that step.
Coppola is likely to start filming in Georgia this fall, so expect a late 2023 or 2024 release for this insane-sounding film.