In Cannes, Francis Ford Coppola talks Trump, self-financing ‘Megalopolis’ and why he has no regrets
CANNES, France — A lot consideration has been paid to the $120 million of his personal fortune that Francis Ford Coppola put as much as make the futuristic epic “Megalopolis,” however the director himself is not a lot involved.
“I don’t care. I by no means cared,” Coppola mentioned of cash, talking to reporters on the Cannes Movie Competition on Friday. “The cash doesn’t matter. What’s necessary are the buddies. As a result of buddies won’t ever allow you to down. Cash might evaporate.”
Coppola offered a chunk of his vineyard enterprise to finance “Megalopolis,” a ardour mission the filmmaker has been pondering for many years. Whatever the final result — the movie is looking for a North American distributor — he will be positive, financially, Coppola mentioned.
“My kids, with out exception, they’ve fantastic careers with no fortune,” he mentioned. “They don’t want a fortune.”
Coppola confronted questions from the press the day after premiering the hotly anticipated “Megalopolis,” starring Adam Driver as an architect named Cesar Catalina who’s making an attempt to construct a utopia in a future New York Metropolis. Critics known as the movie every thing from a catastrophe to an admirably formidable gambit that solely Coppola might make.
Coppola fashions his movie as a Roman Empire-esque story. The nearer he obtained to creating it, he mentioned, the extra related it appeared to him.
“What’s occurring in America, in our republic, our democracy, is precisely how Rome misplaced their republic 1000’s of years in the past,” mentioned Coppola, who lamented the resurgence of the “neo-right, even fascist custom.”
“Our politics has taken us to the purpose the place we would lose our republic,” he continued. “It’s not the individuals who have change into politicians who’re going to be the reply. I really feel it’s the artists of America. The position of the artist is to light up up to date life, to shine a lightweight, to be the headlights.”
Drawing laughs, Coppola then turned to at least one his forged members, Jon Voight, noting he had “totally different political views.” Voight responded: “How did you discover that out?”
Coppola has been procuring “Megalopolis” for potential consumers. When requested whether or not a streaming firm may be a house for the film, he advised streaming was nothing new.
“Streaming is what we used to name residence video,” Coppola mentioned. He voiced some misgivings about trendy Hollywood.
“The job shouldn’t be a lot to make good motion pictures, the job is to make it possible for they pay their debt obligations,” he mentioned of studios. “It may be that the studios that we knew for therefore lengthy — some fantastic ones — should not going to be right here sooner or later.”
However Coppola’s tone was in any other case overwhelmingly optimistic. The 85-year-old filmmaker exalted the members of the family who got here with him and implored reporters to ask extra questions of his forged, together with Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito and Aubrey Plaza. (Shia LaBeouf attended Thursday’s premiere however didn’t be part of the press convention.)
“There’s so many individuals after they die, they are saying, ‘I want I had accomplished this, I want I accomplished that,’” mentioned Coppola. “Once I die, I’m going to say, ‘I obtained to do that.’ I obtained to see my daughter (Sofia Coppola) win an Oscar and I obtained to make wine and I obtained to make each film I wished to make. I’m going to be so busy desirous about all of the issues I obtained to do this after I die I gained’t discover it.”
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For extra protection of the 2024 Cannes Movie Competition, go to https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival.
