Francis Ford Coppola’sMegalopolisis a movie that has taken the legendary film director some time to get into production, but the cast isn’t done growing yet, withShia LaBeoufthe latest star to join the $100 million movie (viaTHR). Coppola’s film has been in gestation for a very long time, having first been conceived around the time ofApocalypse, Nowand having an original screenplay written around 2001, but the attack on New York on September 11 put the project on hold. Now, Coppola’s movie appears to be rising like a phoenix, and it is not doing it quietly.
Coppola revealed in late 2021 that he was almost ready to start shooting the movie, and having cited a Fall 2022 date, he seems to be still on track, even if he has to finance the entire film himself. Unlike a big franchise movie, or an adaptation of a bestselling novel,Megalopolisdoes not have the words “Summer Blockbuster” written all over it, and despite its massive cast of stars it would be hard to find a studio willing to take a $100 million gamble on such a movie in the current climate.
Shia LaBeouf is the latest name to be attached to the projects, joining Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, and James Remar. The movie was also originally meant to star James Caan, who sadly passed away in July.
Related:Francis Ford Coppola Will Finance Next Film Megalopolis With His Own $120 Million
Shia LaBeouf Has Been The Subject of Controversy Lately
Just over a decade ago, Shia LaBeouf seemed to have the world at his feet. He became the star of theTransformers franchise, appeared as the son of Indiana Jones inIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,and starred in numerous other movies such asConstantine, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, American HoneyandBorg vs McEnroe. In the last couple of years though LaBeouf has found himself being ignored by Hollywood following allegations of sexual battery by former partner, FKA Twigs, and his troubles recently surfaced again whenOlivia Wilde claimed that the actor was fired from her movieDon’t Worry Darling, something that he since denied.
It seems that despite the unresolved potential court case around the 2020 lawsuit raised by Twigs, Coppola seems to have no issues adding the star to his roster of actors on boardMegalopolis. With so many big movies, such asThe Flash, having lead stars who have been nothing short of controversial in their personal lives, LaBeouf’s casting is somehow not the one with the most issues around it at the moment.
Currently, there is no word on exactly when Coppola will finally get cameras rolling on his movie, or when we are likely to see it arrive in cinemas. However, while the director has had a number of attempts to get the film off the ground in the past, his recent comments that he “doesn’t care” about the financial impact the movie will have on him as he piles his own money into it, suggest that he is determined that this time there will be no further delays inMegalopolis’ production.
