NBCUniversal chief content material officer Donna Langley was there. So was Sony head Tom Rothman. Bob Iger was one of many few Hollywood heavyweights who couldn’t make it, however no less than he had a superb excuse, nonetheless within the midst of a vicious proxy battle with investor Nelson Peltz.
The occasion: The grand unveiling of Megalopolis, the self-funded epic from legendary The Godfather trilogy director Francis Ford Coppola, to the titans of the movie business. The March 28 screening — held 10 a.m. on the Common CityWalk Imax theater — was additionally attended by such Coppola-verse luminaries as nephew Nicolas Cage, The Godfather collection star Al Pacino and Spike Jonze, Coppola’s ex-son-in-law. Two of the movie’s stars — Shia LaBeouf and Copolla’s sister, Talia Shire — had been additionally readily available.
The mission, which Coppola first started writing in 1983, value a reported $120 million to make — funded partially by the sale of a good portion of his wine empire (the 2021 deal was reportedly value over $500 million). Clocking in at two hours and quarter-hour, the movie follows the rebuilding of a metropolis after its unintended destruction, with two competing visions — one from an idealist architect (Adam Driver), the opposite from its pragmatist mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) — clashing within the course of. References to historic Rome — together with Caesar haircuts on the lads — abound.
Coppola, 84, has mentioned no choices will probably be made relating to a pageant bow till a distribution plan is put in place. However whereas there was no scarcity of curious suitors there — along with Rothman and Sarandos, Warner Bros.’ Pam Abdy, Disney live-action boss David Greenbaum, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Paramount’s Marc Weinstein had been all noticed — a number of sources contained in the screening inform The Hollywood Reporter that Megalopolis will face a steep uphill battle to discover a distribution associate. Says one distributor: “There’s simply no solution to place this film.”
“Everyone seems to be rooting for Francis and feels nostalgic,” provides one other attendee. “However then there may be the enterprise facet of issues.”
A third attendee famous “a conspicuous silence on the finish of it,” however stopped wanting writing off the movie as a failed train. “Does it wobble, wander, go everywhere? Sure. Nevertheless it’s actually imaginative and does say one thing about our time. I feel it’s going to be a small, specialised label [that picks it up].”
However a boutique label like A24 or Neon would seemingly not have the price range for the grand advertising push Coppola has envisioned. One supply inform THR that Coppola assumed he would make a deal in a short time, and {that a} studio would fortunately commit to an enormous P&A (prints and promoting, together with all advertising) spend within the neighborhood of $40 million domestically, and $80 million to $100 million globally.
That type of big-stakes rollout would make Megalopolis a greater match for a studio-backed specialty label just like the Disney-owned Searchlight or the Common-owned Focus. However Common and Focus have already tapped out of the bidding, sources inform THR.
“I discover it exhausting to consider any distributor would put up money cash and keep in first place to recoup the P&A in addition to their distribution payment,” says a distribution veteran. “If [Coppola] is keen to place up the P&A or backstop the spend, I feel there could be much more events.”
Since Coppola was all the time eager for this to be an Imax launch, there was a small screening on the firm’s Playa Vista headquarters in Los Angeles previous to the client’s occasion (the primary time the director noticed the movie in full on an Imax display screen). Whereas Megalopolis isn’t a “Filmed for Imax” film — that means it isn’t assured a full Imax launch — Coppola did use digital camera know-how that may permit him to shoot sure sequences that may fill a whole Imax display screen, and labored with the corporate’s chief high quality consultants David and Patricia Keighley, who advise filmmakers.
Imax is probably going to provide the movie some help if it will get distribution, sources near the mission say. Like others, nonetheless, Imax anticipated the movie to be much more industrial, sources add.
Following the muted response to the March 28 screening, it’s not even clear if a studio would conform to a adverse pickup deal, by which the studio would purchase the movie outright, or one by which it might distribute the movie for a payment. One studio head in attendance described it as “some type of indie experiment” that may discover a house at a streamer.
Most of those that spoke to THR describe a movie that’s an enormously exhausting promote to a large viewers. Two folks say it’s exhausting to determine who’s the great man and who’s the unhealthy man. The large exception is LaBeouf, who they are saying is the most effective factor in regards to the movie (he’s one of many antagonists).
A number of have talked about an particularly cringey sequence involving Jon Voight’s character in mattress with what seems to be like an enormous erection; the scene evidently takes fairly the flip, however we is not going to spoil it right here.
Not everybody was turned off. “I preferred it enormously,” says one specialty label founder, who describes Megalopolis as a “very massive movie” that “has an actual life. … How do you outline industrial? You take a look at film like Blade Runner and it grew to become a lot extra industrial than on opening weekend.” Regardless of the vote of confidence, Megalopolis received’t discover a house at his studio: “It takes time to seek out proper match,” he says.
One other studio head, nonetheless, was far much less charitable in his evaluation: “It’s so not good, and it was so unhappy watching it. Anyone who places P&A behind it, you’re going to lose cash. This isn’t how Coppola ought to finish his directing profession.”