Pablo O. Scholz
09/04/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
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Updated 09/04/2021 9:42 AM
“I'm still willing to make my dream movie, even if I have to put up my money, and I can put in $ 100 million if I have to.
I don't want to, but I will do it if necessary. "
What filmmaker is able to put his own money into a movie?
The directors who have the final cut -the definitive version of their films: no one tells them what to wear, what to take out or what to change-, at least in the Hollywood system, they count on the fingers of their hands: Spielberg, Scorsese, Cameron , Nolan, Eastwood.
Big.
Spielberg, Scorsese, De Palma, Lucas and Coppola at a birthday celebration for the director of "Star Wars".
Photo Clarín Archive
And we are not forgetting
Francis Ford Coppola
, the man who had already lost everything to a dream (
One From the Heart
) when at the beginning of the '80s he bet that other media, such as video and digital, were going to impersonate the filmmaker.
Well, he was right, but at the time it seems that he was not, because he got into debt to what he did not have and had to continue filming and directing films on request (he even erased with his elbow what he wrote with his hand when making
Stone Gardens
, the counterpart to
Apocalypse Now
).
Well, that man, who is no longer 40 years old, but 82, is willing to put up the money that he will collect - because he still does not have it - for the sale of part of his vineyards in the Napa Valley and filming
Megalopolis
.
Coppola with part of the cast of "Tetro", which filmed in Argentina in 2008. Photo Néstor Sieira
Fans of the director of the
Godfather
trilogy
have heard about the project.
Coppola has been dreaming and kneading it for forty years.
20 years ago, in 2001, he had it in pre-production, but the attack on the Twin Towers paralyzed him.
To the project, not to him.
Now he's determined to film it.
The director speaks to the press at the Toronto Film Festival where he presented his latest film, "Twixt," in September 2011. AP Photo
And it has several stars praised.
Some conversations are more advanced than others, but Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett and Jon Voight would be confirmed.
The director of
The Conversation
wants Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange, who would join James Caan, who was Sonny Corleone in the first
The Godfather
and made him a figure.
OK, almost 50 years ago.
Emboldened, Coppola is ready to take out new loans and shoot, in the fall of 2022, a hopeful film that seeks a young audience, because it will tell that a society like this, in which we live, is not the only alternative available.
"I don't have the entire cast approved, but I have enough to trust that it will be a very exciting cast,"
the director who came to shoot
Tetro
(2009) in Argentina
told
Deadline
.
The movie will cost between $ 100 million and $ 120 million.
Needless to say, I hope it is closer to $ 100 million. "
Al Pacino talks to Coppola on the set of "The Godfather III."
At the end of 2020 Francis presented a new edition of the film.
Photo Clarín Archive
In recent years, in which he has not filmed - his last film is
Twixt
(2011), a horror comedy with
Val Kilmer
and Elle Fanning never commercially released in Argentina - Coppola has lost considerably in weight and has not stood still.
He created new versions of
The Godfather III
, which he titled
The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone
,
Apocalypse Now
and
The Cotton Club
.
And he's got restored versions of
The Rain People
and
The Outcasts ready
.
"Everybody wants to do the next Marvel one, but nobody wants to make one that speaks to young people hopefully," he says.
Photo Clarín Archive
"Do you know that I own the negative of
Apocalypse Now
, and do you know why I have it?" He continued in his chat with
Deadline
.
“Because nobody wanted it.
And
Apocalypse Now
these years makes almost as much as what we get from
The Godfather
.
Everyone wants to do the next Marvel movie, but no one wants to make a movie that really speaks to young people in a hopeful way, that we are in a position to come together and solve whatever problems come our way.
That's what I think".
What will "Megalopolis" be about?
The Guatemalan Oscar Isaac poses this Friday the 3rd in Venice, in the presentation of "Duna".
He will star in "Megalopolis".
ANSA photo
Coppola sets his script in a contemporary but futuristic New York, and the seemingly long story has its origins in ancient Rome.
An architect's utopia is to rebuild New York after a devastating disaster.
More current, impossible.
"The concept of the film is a Roman epic, in the traditional way of Cecil B. DeMille or
Ben-Hur
, but told as a modern counterpart centered in the United States."
Forest Whitaker will be the mayor of New York in "Megalopolis."
AFP photo
The basis is the conspiracy of Catilina, who was a Roman patrician and will be played today by Oscar Isaac, who wanted to take power.
And Cicero, who will be Forest Whitaker, is the mayor of New York that is going through a financial crisis.
A Roman epic: "It is an impression of modern New York, which I call New Rome."
And if Rome wasn't built in a day, it may well take Coppola more than four decades to make his film.
If he succeeds, well he deserves it.
Look also
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: One as Marvel (and God) Rule
Venice Film Festival: "Official Competition", the Argentine hope