Francis Ford Coppola’s risky, largely self-financed passion project Megalopolis has finally found one distributor – Le Pacte in France.
Hollywood studio reps didn’t seem massively upbeat about Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola’s sci-fi epic, but the $120m film has at least found a valuable backer in France.
French outlet Le Point (as picked up by World of Reel) reports that the independent company Le Pacte will put Megalopolis in the country’s cinemas, with its release scheduled for the end of September.
Le Pacte has good taste when it comes to distributing indie films on French screens; other movies it’s taken under its wing include Snowpiercer, Drive and last year’s Oscar-winning Anatomy Of A Fall.
Megalopolis' September cinema release will come after it screens in competition at 2025’s Cannes Film Festival – an event that, if all goes well, might endear it to more global distributors if they haven’t already signed up by then.
A near-future drama about a visionary architect who has a grand plan to rebuild a shattered city, Megalopolis has an eye-catching cast, including Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman. But it’s also a major risk for Coppola, given its unusual subject matter and its sizeable $120m budget, much of which the filmmaker has stumped up himself.
Coppola first screened his passion project for Hollywood executives in March 2024, with important people from the likes of Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount and Netflix in attendance. The reaction to Megalopolis could perhaps be described as ‘nonplussed’, with one distributor telling The Hollywood Reporter, “There is just no way to position this movie.”
Le Pacte is therefore the first distributor to put its money behind the film, with US studios seemingly reluctant to take on the task of marketing it. Megalopolis' Cannes screening is set for the 17th May 2025. If we hear more news on the distribution front – not least a backer in the UK – we’ll update you accordingly.
