Francis Ford Coppola is finally set to helm ‘Megalopolis’.
The 80-year-old filmmaker is getting to work on his dream project, which he originally announced at the Cannes International Film Festival back in 2001, but was forced to delay after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
The movie, which is about an architect’s attempt to create a utopia in the middle of the Big Apple, was deemed too sensitive at the time in the wake of the destruction of the Twin Towers.
Coppola is set to begin working on the project again this year, with Jude Law reportedly in talks to join the film, which will have a "large cast" and will be a showcase of the Academy Award-winner’s unique film style.
Speaking to Deadline, the ‘Godfather’ director said: "So yes, I plan this year to begin my long-standing ambition to make a major work utilising all I have learned during my long career, beginning at age 16 doing theatre, and that will be an epic on a grand scale, which I’ve entitled ‘Megalopolis’.
"It is unusual; it will be a production on a grand scale with a large cast.
"It makes use of all of my years of trying films in different styles and types culminating in what I think is my own voice and aspiration.
"It is not within the mainstream of what is produced now, but I am intending and wishing and in fact encouraged, to begin production this year."
Meanwhile, Coppola will also debut ‘Apocalypse Now: Final Cut’ at this summer’s Tribeca Film Festival.
He had fought with film studios for many years to have the full version released in theatres and now he’s enabling fans to see the "weirder" parts.
The original 1979 film, Coppola says, was "too abruptly shortened" and in 2001 ‘Apocalypse Redux’ was released with 45 minutes extra footage added to the epic Vietnam War film.
And now the iconic filmmaker is going to be able to the film – which starred Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall – with the world in all its glory.
He explained: "Given that the ‘Apocalypse’ original was not only long, but also unusual in style and substance for a film at that time, we tended to cut whenever possible not only in time but also in what then was considered ‘weirdness’.
"Maybe 15 years later I happened to catch a TV viewing of it in a hotel, and as I always enjoyed seeing the beginning, started watching and ending up seeing the whole film.
"I realised that just with that time elapsed, that the film was not as weird as I had thought, and had become more ‘contemporary’. The avant garde art of the present often becomes the ‘wallpaper’ (mainstream) art of the future.
"That plus many people’s (including distributor’s opinion) that so much great stuff had been cut out, led to what was later called ‘Apocalypse Redux’, which actually had a successful theatrical distribution. But that version that had all that had been cut out, restored.
"Later on, once again, when asked which version I personally wanted to be shown, I often felt that the original 1979 was too abruptly shortened, and ‘Redux’ was too long, and settled on what I now felt was the perfect version, which is what we’re showing at Tribeca later this month, called ‘Apocalypse Now Final Cut’."
Francis Ford Coppola directing Megalopolis
