The director of “Apocalypse Now” will do so at the newly opened Prysm Stages in Atlanta. According to a statement from the studios, Coppola intends to have “one foot in the past and one in the future,” combining classic filmmaking with the most sophisticated production technology. The Prysm stage is built to house a physical production ecosystem that includes integrated lighting and camera in a state-of-the-art virtual production.
The specialized press has said that Coppola, 83, is spending tens of millions of his own dollars (a figure of 120 million has been ventured) to finance the futuristic feature film, on which he has been working for decades. The film will shoot in Georgia beginning in November and continuing through March 2023. Producer Michael Bederman said, “Shooting in an LED volume opens up new ways to create stories in film. What is unique and exciting about shooting ‘Megalopolis’ at Prysm is that we are able to bring together traditional film crews, techniques and experience with the most advanced virtual production capabilities in the same space.” While Coppola did not confirm the budget, he told GQ magazine that he “couldn’t care less about the financial impact as long as the film lives up to my vision. It means nothing to me”.
Since founding his production company American Zoetrope in 1969, Coppola has blazed trails for filmmakers trying to make projects outside of the Hollywood system. He went bust, sure, but then he got into the wine business and built a vineyard empire that made more money than his movies. “Megalopolis” has been described as an epic film that explores ideas about the possibility of building a utopian society. It is set in a futuristic version of New York that is loosely based on ancient Rome. The film will feature a cast including Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, and James Remar. The names of Cate Blachett and Oscar Isaac, who appeared at first, have been discarded.
Coppola, who with this film plans his definitive retirement from the cinema, always dreamed of it as the “Ben Hur” of our time but in a futuristic key. “The concept of the film is a Roman epic, in the traditional Cecil B. DeMille or ‘Ben-Hur’ manner, but told as a modern American-centric counterpart,” he said. “It is based on The Catiline Conspiracy, which comes to us from ancient Rome. A famous duel between a patrician, Catilina, who will be played by Adam Driver, and Cicero, who will be Forest Whitaker. He is now the beleaguered mayor of New York during a financial crisis. The story unfolds in a new Rome, a Roman epic sent to modern times. The time is not a specific year of
modern New York, but an impression of the city, the one I call New Rome”.
Coppola, whose personal finances had already been ruined once in 1980, with “Apocalypse Now” (which bankrupted his company Zoetrope), devised “Megalopolis” in those days, and by the end of the 20th century he had everything ready to start filming, when on September 11, 2001 the Twin Towers fell and New York became an unthinkable setting for a
project of these characteristics. Two decades back to the fray, in a very different cultural context. Today, with the reign of Marvel blockbusters, it seems unlikely that he will achieve a “Ben Hur of our time”, but he will try anyway. For that, too, there are the new technologies that it will use.
Source: Ambito
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