Francis Ford Coppola has been trying to get his mega-epic Megalopolis off the ground for years. After selling a massive share of his winery, the writer-director is ready to fund his film from his own pocket and start production on the film.
Megalopolis is a futuristic feature that has been 20 years in the making. Similar to why it has taken James Cameron so long to makeAvatar: The Way of Water, Coppola has been waiting for the technology to be ready for his vision. Finally, the technology is ready for Megalopolis.
Coppola confirmed to IndieWire that his wide-spanning film will be the first feature shot on the LED volume stage at the newly opened Prysm Stages at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.
In his official statement, Coppola said he aims to have “one foot in the past and one in the future” for Megalopolis, meaning that the director will be working with the newest production technology and forms of traditional filmmaking.
The Prysm Stage is the perfect place for Coppola to do this since it is built to accommodate the best-in-class ecosystem for lighting, grip, and cameras. By integrating a state-of-the-art virtual production volume, along with new technology available from Trilith, Coppola plans to use never-before-seen techniques to create his next great American film.
Prysm Stages offer a new virtual production experience for filmmakers by providing them with a modular stage designed with an open framework for production workflows and color pipelines that can be customized to any project.
This allows filmmakers of every level to easily configure the setup to meet the creative needs of their projects.
Prysm StudioCredit:
“Shooting in an LED volume opens up new ways to create our stories in film,” said producer Michael Bederman in a press statement. “What’s unique and exciting about shooting Megalopolis at Prysm at Trilith is that we can marry traditional filmmaking experience, techniques, and crew with the most advanced virtual production capabilities in the same space, accessing the best of both the physical and digital options available to filmmakers today.”
Coppola added that he is enjoying working with Prysm at Trilith, and Prysm Stages president Barbara Ford Grant is excited to work with the director.
“It is such an honor to be entrusted by Francis Ford Coppola and his team to bring Megalopolis, regarded to be his magnum opus, to Prysm Stages,” Grant said.
Filming for the mega-epic feature will begin in November 2022 and will continue through March 2023. While we don’t know much about the film except that it follows “the fate of Rome” haunting “a modern world unable to solve its own social problems,” we do know that the film stars Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, John Voight, Aubrey Plaza, and Shia LaBeouf.
Francis Ford CoppolaCredit: Getty Images
Coppola is estimated to be spending around $120 million of his own money to fund Megalopolis since the project is a dream of Coppola's. The director told GQ that he “couldn’t care less about the financial impact whatsoever” as long as the film met his vision.
Megalopolis will be Coppola’s biggest film he has ever taken on. Will the director be able to pull off another notable film in cinematic history by blending the past and future in his self-declared magnum opus?
We won’t know any time soon, but we are excited to follow the production and learn more about how Coppola uses this new technology at Prysm Stages to enhance his story.
Are you looking forward to Megalopolis? Let us know in the comments what you think!
Source: IndieWire
