‘Megalopolis’ Sets Cannes Debut, But Coppola Faces Major Challenges Looking For Distribution
On March 28, at 10am, Franchis Ford Coppola held his first semi-private screening of his new film Megalopolis at the Universal CityWalk Imax theater. In attendance were some of the biggest names in Hollywood, from studio bosses like David Zaslav (Warner Discovery), to Donna Langley (Universal Pictures), to David Greenbaum (Walt Disney Studios). The reaction to the movie was pretty underwhelming.
Of course, there are two different arguments here. One is the quality argument, which has been disputed in the media thanks to “standing ovation” reports and people coming out of it loving the film (others disagree). But there’s a much bigger concern here: the movie is pretty much unreleasable for wide audiences. “I find it hard to believe any distributor would put up cash money and stay in first position to recoup the P&A as well as their distribution fee,” a distribution veteran told The Hollywood Reporter about this situation.
The basics of the story involve the rebuilding of a metropolis after its accidental destruction, with two opposing visions for it: Adam Driver as an “idealist” architect, and Giancarlo Esposito as the more realistic mayor of the city. THR added that there are plenty of references to ancient Rome, “including Caesar haircuts on the men.”
Coppola put up the money to finance the production, which tallied up to $100M+, but now someone else has to come in and spend around the same much to promote it and get the wide distribution deal that the Godfather director is thinking about. This is not something Coppola had expected, according to the report. He thought he’d be able to sell this off almost immediately. But several studios and their specialty divisions have already backed out, including Universal and Focus. “If [Coppola] is willing to put up the P&A or backstop the spend, I think there would be a lot more interested parties,” said the individual above.
Places like A24 or Neon probably can’t afford it, the outlet argues — even though they are actually backed by deep-pocketed investors that could actually unload it if they deemed it a good business. The Neon case is interesting here too.
It was confirmed today that the movie will be premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, which is definitely an interesting move. It’s been a long-running theory that Coppola would be bringing it to France in May, but entering competition is a whole other story. For industry veterans, it’s usually not recommended bringing their latest project to compete in the festival, because there’s very little they can win, and so much to lose. They have nothing to prove, but losing to a much younger filmmaker while being the focus of attention of the festival can be very detrimental for the film’s eventual global rollout.
Just last year, Martin Scorsese screened Killers of the Flower Moon out of competition in Cannes. But Coppola, who celebrates 50 years of winning the Palme d’Or for The Conversation this year, does have something to prove. Scorsese’s movie had a distributor in Paramount, but Coppola doesn’t; Coppola is looking for one, and with some concessions on his end he could end up coming out of France with a deal signed, should the movie screen well with audiences. And there’s no audience like Cannes.
This is where Neon comes in. The private equity-funded indie distributor has been excellent at their selection over the past few years, and has been signing the eventual Palme d’Or winner for several years in a row, eventually leading them to a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Anatomy of a Fall and Triangle of Sadness are the two most recent examples. This also brings up a much larger question: what will they be buying this year?
Whether it’s Megalopolis or not, there will be a lot of eyes on Southern France this year. Coppola envisioned his movie as a big-budget epic that would play in IMAX theaters all over the world. He has shot some sequences with the wider aspect ratio and worked with people from the company in charge of advising filmmakers on the use of the technology. His cast is also filled with top-level talent, from Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, and Giancarlo Esposito, to Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, and Jason Schwartzman. Shia LaBeouf is apparently excellent in it as one of the antagonists. But can these names on a poster bring enough people into the theater?
The main hurdle seems to be that it’s too out there for mass audiences. “There are zero commercial prospects and good for him. It’s unflinching in how batshit crazy it is,” an attendee told Puck‘s Matt Belloni after the March 28 screening. “At one point the movie ‘came alive’ with an actor standing in front of the screen,” Belloni added. What does that mean? We’ll have to find out if someone rises to the occasion.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
