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After more than a decade away from filmmaking, legendary director Francis Ford Coppola returned this year with "Megalopolis," an epic passion project he self-financed to the tune of $130 million. The film, however, has become a critical and commercial disaster, earning scathing reviews and a meager global box office of just over $13 million—a guaranteed financial loss. But Coppola, who was prepared for this outcome, has repeatedly stated his current focus is on achieving complete creative freedom. The failure of "Megalopolis" will not extinguish his ambition to continue telling stories.
In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Coppola revealed that two other films he has been developing for years, even before "Megalopolis" began shooting, are still moving forward.
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Coppola's next planned films are "Glimpses of the Moon" and "Distant Vision." He told the publication that after spending the Christmas holiday with his family, he will move to London to begin shooting the former, which he describes as a strange, 1930s-style musical. The film is partially adapted from Edith Wharton's novel of the same name and is also inspired by Leo McCarey's "The Awful Truth."
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The other project, "Distant Vision," is more experimental. Coppola has described it as even more ambitious and difficult to produce than "Megalopolis." Back in 2015, Coppola conducted a "Live Cinema" workshop for "Distant Vision," confidently proclaiming at the time that he was creating a new art form with the project. The official version will be produced in a similar format. Like "Megalopolis," both "Distant Vision" and "Glimpses of the Moon" will be self-funded by Coppola without major studio investment.
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Beyond his future original projects, Coppola also reflected on one of the few sequels of his career, "The Godfather Part II." While the concept of a sequel didn't begin with his film, Coppola believes its success is what led to Hollywood's subsequent obsession with mass-producing them. "They basically said to me, ‘Francis, you’ve made Coca-Cola, and you want to stop making it?’” he recalled.
Coppola noted that the "Part II" in the title was something he borrowed from the Russian film series "Ivan the Terrible," whose installments were also labeled Part I and Part II. He feels that the trend of numbering sequels in Hollywood was influenced by his film. "I was the son of a bitch who started the idea of putting a number on the title," Coppola said. "I’m ashamed of that. I’m sorry."
via： The Washington Post