Megalopolis, the long-awaited epic from director Francis Ford Coppola, has been acquired by Film Europe for distribution in the Czech Republic, the company has announced from this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film will be screened as part of Film Europe‘s annual Be2Can Film Festival, which runs from October 2-9, 2024.
“We are absolutely thrilled to announce our latest acquisition – Megalopolis, a fascinating film of operatic proportions by legendary director Francis Ford Coppola straight from the Main Competition section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival,” Film Europe states through a press release.
A science fiction epic that transplants narratives from the ancient Roman Empire to a post-apocalyptic American landscape, Megalopolis boasts a star-studded cast featuring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, and others.
Driver stars as Caesar, a brilliant architect who hopes to lead the fictional New Rome into a utopian future, which brings him into conflict with the city’s current mayor Cicero (Esposito), who represents a regressive status quo fueled by greed and self-interest. Emmanuel plays the mayor’s daughter, who finds her loyalty divided after falling in love with Caesar.
Megalopolis was one of the highest-profile films screening at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it reportedly received a 10-minute standing ovation following its premiere. Critics have been somewhat divided, but most have praised Coppola’s visionary approach to the project.
Megalopolis is playing in competition at Cannes, but Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, Andrea Arnold’s Bird, and Sean Baker’s Anora are the favorites to win the coveted Palme d’Or at the festival’s closing ceremony on May 25.
Coppola directed some of the best American movies of the 1970s (The Godfather Parts I & II, The Conversation) and first conceived Megalopolis during the production of Apocalypse Now. He began extensive work on the film in 1983, but put his passion project on the back burner to work on studio projects like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Jack after a series of box office disappointments.
With a reported budget of $120 million (CZK 2.7 billion), financed by Coppola himself through his American Zoetrope studio, Megalopolis is one of the most expensive independent movies ever made.
“It’s my dream that Megalopolis will become a New Year’s Eve perennial favorite, with audiences discussing afterwards not their new diets or resolutions not to smoke, but rather the simple question: ‘Is the society in which we live the only one available to us?’” the filmmaker stated from Cannes.
A wide release for Megalopolis in Czech cinemas beyond the Be2Can festival in October has yet to be confirmed, but should coincide with the film’s expected release in global markets later this fall.
