Francis Ford Coppola Film ‘Megalopolis’ Lands Cannes Competition Debut

Francis Ford Coppola‘s highly anticipated, self-funded feature Megalopolis has landed a Cannes debut. The film will screen in competition at the festival on May 17 in a gala premiere at the 77th annual festival.

The project follows the rebuilding of a metropolis after its accidental destruction, with two competing visions — one from an idealist architect (Adam Driver), the other from its pragmatist mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) — clashing during the process. Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne and Aubrey Plaza round out the cast.

The project, which Coppola first began writing in 1983, cost a reported $120 million to make — funded in part by the sale of a significant portion of his wine empire. Recently, the film had a screening for potential buyers, with Universal’s Donna Langley, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Sony’s Tom Rothman in attendance at Universal CityWalk. It is still seeking distribution, but the filmmaker has noted his desire for an Imax release.

Several in attendance at the Megalopolis screening described their experiences to The Hollywood Reporter, with one studio head saying, “It’s so not good, and it was so sad watching it. Anybody who puts P&A behind it, you’re going to lose money.” Another offered: “I liked it enormously.”

Coppola famously brought another of his fraught features, Apocalypse Now, to the festival. It became the first stop on a long journey to acclaim.

Megalopolis joins already-announced titles like Kevin Costner’s Horizon, another self-funded epic, and George Miller’s Mad Max title Furiosa. The rest of the Cannes line-up will be announced on April 11.