Spoilers for our forthcoming most-anticipated films of 2024 feature next week, but it’s safe to say Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-development, nearly-completed Megalopolis will earn a prime spot at the top of the list. We already got confirmation that the $100 million epic––starring Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, DB Sweeney, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Bailey Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, James Remar, and Giancarlo Esposito––will get a 2024 release, but now we have a new update straight from the legendary director today.
“All I can say is I love the actors in it. It’s unusual, and it’s never boring. Other than that, wait and see. It’s only going to be a few months and it’ll be out,” Coppola revealed on the latest episode of The Accutron Show. Now, perhaps Coppola is simply talking about when he’s wrapping post-production, which would prime the film for a Cannes Film Festival debut, and an official release would follow later, but it’s exciting nonetheless that he seems to be putting the finishing touches on his passion project. If it does go to Cannes, we’ll be curious to see, pending a distributor announcement, if Megalopolis could see a debut during the relatively lighter post-Cannes summer season or if it’ll be held for a fall roll-out.
“The movie is wild. It’s so imaginative and big and epic, and it’s bold. It takes a risk, and I couldn’t be more excited by it,” Driver recently told Collider, also revealing he’s seen some footage which he calls “amazing.” He also talked about the production process: “Because he financed it himself, it made the shooting process one of the best experiences, if not the best shooting experience, I’ve ever had. There was no excess conversation, there were no people robbing from Peter to pay Paul,” the actor said. “It felt like he was in control of the movie that he wanted to make and that was it. “It felt like, ‘Oh, this is how movies should be.’ And he is the most generous, philosophical person that I know. I loved that process and making it with him. I love talking to him.”
As we await Megalopolis, listen to Coppola’s conversation below, in which he also discusses why Rumble Fish is the film that is most dear to him, why it’s impossible to make a top tens film list, the importance of consuming all forms of media, and watching Asteroid City.
