Lionsgate on Monday said it has picked up the rights to Francis Ford Coppolaâs âMegalopolisâ for the U.S. and Canada, ending months of speculation over which studio might distribute the famed directorâs epic passion project. The film will hit domestic theaters, including Imax screens, on Sept. 27.
âMegalopolisâ is the first new film from the five-time Oscar winner since 2011âs âTwixtâ and Coppola is reported to have invested some $120 million of his own money, raised from the sale of part of his wine business, to pay for the ambitious tale.
With a cast that includes Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Chloe Fineman, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf and Laurence Fishburne, the film is a sweeping fable surveying power struggles set against a fictionalized New York, refashioned to seem like New Rome.
Director Francis Ford Coppola gives a press conference for his film âMegalopolisâ during the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 17.
(Zoulerah Norddine / AFP via Getty Images)
When the film premiered last month at the Cannes film festival, The Timesâ Josh Rothkopf wrote that if âMegalopolisâ becomes the last effort from the 85-year-old âGodfatherâ filmmaker, then âheâs going out not with something tame and manicured but with an overstuffed, vigorous, seething story about the roots of fascism that only an uncharitable viewer would call a catastrophe.â
âIt may be the most radical film heâs ever done,â Rothkopf wrote.
Lionsgate has a longstanding relationship with Coppola and his American Zoetrope banner, having previously handled home entertainment releases of his âApocalypse Now Final Cut,â âThe Conversation,â âThe Cotton Club Encore,â âTucker: The Man and His Dreamâ and âOne From the Heart: Reprise.â
While speaking at the filmâs Cannes press conference, Coppola referred to the bold, stylistic leap of âMegalopolisâ by saying, âI knew the film was not like other films that are out. Itâs how I felt the film should be, and since I was paying for it I thought I was entitled [to do it my way].â