At which festival will the highly anticipated science fiction epic Megalopolis be shown for the first time? The film world has been pondering this question for months. Now we finally have an answer.
Hardly any other film is more eagerly awaited this year than Megalopolis. The first directorial effort by Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) in 13 years promises to be one of the most unusual science fiction films ever seen on the big screen. The premiere is now set.
Cannes, Venice or Toronto? Over the past few months, the film world has been busy speculating as to which film festival Coppola would present his new work. Now Cannes has been chosen. As Deadline has exclusively learned, Megaolopolis will celebrate its premiere as part of the official competition on May 17, 2024.
Megalopolis in Cannes: Francis Ford Coppola brings his highly anticipated sci-fi epic to the Croisette
The Cannes premiere of Megalopolis comes as quite a surprise. Not least, Coppola had said that he didn’t want to show the film at a festival until he had found a distributor for theatrical release in the USA and overseas. We recently reported that the major Hollywood studios were backing out of Megalopolis
(Megalopolis)
Coppola’s film is not commercial enough, according to various reports. Apparently, we are dealing with an unconventional sci-fi film that is predestined to become the next Blade Runner – misjudged at the time of its release, but later immortalized as a cult film. We can be very curious to see how Megalopolis is received in Cannes.
The initial reactions sounded extremely promising. In the last few days, however, some critical industry voices have joined in. Mostly, however, it was more about the question of how the film can best be sold. So far, Megalopolis has only been shown to a specialist audience, including Coppola’s circle of friends.
Coppola has a lot at stake with the film. Not only has the director spent decades developing the material. After the project repeatedly fell apart, he sold large parts of his wine empire in order to single-handedly raise the considerable budget of 120 million US dollars.
In Cannes, the master director is in the best of company. While Coppola presents his sci-fi epic, which has been in the works for over four decades, fellow director and Star Wars creator George Lucas will receive the festival’s Palme d’Honneur. This means that two of the most influential filmmakers are represented in Cannes this year
