Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis gets US distributor at last

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Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis has finally landed a US distributor, and it’ll hit American cinemas this September. More here.


The journey of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis to our screens is one of the most fascinating film stories of recent times. The self-financing, the reports of chaos on set (which were forcefully denied, we might add) and then the polarising reviews at initial screenings. It’s all added to the mythology that surrounds the return of Coppola, as he pursues his decades-long passion project in the face of naysayers and convention.

Despite the hullabaloo surrounding Megalopolis, the pieces have slowly fallen into place for the film.

It secured UK distribution a while back and is also set to get an IMAX run too, with the company expressing confidence in Coppola’s vision. European distribution is also in place meaning that one of the few remaining outliers for the project was America.

Following a screening for studio heads that was said to be divisive, there were many speculating that Megalopolis would get picked up by for distribution by an arthouse boutique studio, such as A24 or Neon. Instead though, it’s Lionsgate who’s acquired the film for distribution. Coppola has financed the film himself, putting $120m of his cash into the film following the sales of some of his wineries.

With the news that Lionsgate will be distributing comes a release date. Megalopolis will arrive in cinemas in September, namely on the 27th in the US. We’d imagine that we’ll be seeing it at a similar point here in the UK too. The film has been described thus:

The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius and dangerous love.

The cast is perhaps the most stacked ensemble of the year (or the decade) and includes no less than Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker and Nathalie Emmanuel as the three leads. Completing the cast are Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Coppola’s Apocalypse Now discovery Laurence Fishburne, The Godfather’s Talia Shire, Shia LaBeou, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, Aubrey Plaza, James Remar and Shia LaBeouf. Yikes!

We’ll leave you with the film’s trailer below, to stoke anticipation ahead of that September release.

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