The cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s long-gestating dramatic epic, “Megalopolis”—a film he’s been trying to make for nearly 20 years— has added a bevy of new actors, including Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman (Coppola’s nephew), Talia Shire (his sister), Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter and James Remar.
READ MORE: Shia LaBeouf Acknowledges FKA Twigs’ Abuse Accusations: “I Hurt That Woman”
The controversial eye-opener in this list is, of course, LaBeouf, who is attempting something of a comeback after his ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs accused him in a February 2021 lawsuit of abuse, mental, physical, and sexual. And in a recent interview with Jon Bernthal, all but admitted to some of these claims, admitting, “I hurt that woman,” though failed to get into specifics and or, to be fair, admit much that would be legally damaging.
LaBeouf has recently been back in the headlines after a two-year absence following Twigs’ accusations. He’s appearing in Abel Ferrara’s “Padre Pio,” which premieres in Venice this week; he told a priest he contemplated suicide in the wake of the allegations against him and has made headlines by seemingly disproving Olivia Wilde’s claims that LaBeouf was fired from her upcoming drama, “Don’t Worry Darling” which is also premiering in Venice (to be fair, Wilde never used the words “fired,” but a recent interview with Variety contradicted Warner Bros’ initial claims that LaBeouf left the film because of scheduling issues and heavily implied he was let go from the project).
The massive cast of “Megalopolis” stars Adam Driver and also already includes Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, and Aubrey Plaza. The mysterious logline reads, “The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius, and conflicted love.”
“Megalopolis” is independently financed by Coppola, and its budget is just under $100 million—a bold move since Coppola almost went bankrupt in the 1980s for self-financing the expensive musical “One From The Heart” and was already reeling from the costly production on “Apocalypse Now.”
“There’s a certain way everyone thinks a film should be, and it rubs against the grain if you have another idea,” Coppola said earlier this year of self-financing the project. “People can be very unaccepting, but sometimes the other idea represents what’s coming in the future. That is worthy of being considered.”
Earlier this year, “Megalopolis” was reported to be shooting in September in New York, so the production should be underway any minute now.