Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I see the dirty trick Harry played on me. Not only did he go to Cannes and leave me languishing here at The Labs, where it's been unexpectedly warm recently. Underground hideouts have lousy ventilation, and I feel like my brain is cooking. No... to make matters worse, every other story that drops into my mailbox right now is related in some way to Cannes, reminding me that he's there, I'm here, and only one of us is seeing LORD OF THE RINGS footage right now.
Sigh...
Anyway, here's one of the cool little bits of info to trickle out of Cannes so far. Francis Ford Coppola is there to screen his new APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX, the 53-minute longer version of his deranged Vietnam masterpiece, and while talking with VARIETY, there was some proverbial bean-spillage over one of his long-rumored dream projects, the "very mysterious, very odd" MEGALOPOLIS:
"Coppola said his new film MEGALOPOLIS will have an comparable scope to APOCALPYSE NOW and THE GODFATHER.
"The pic, planned for a late fall or January shoot, is the story of a man who wants to build the city of the future. Coppola's longtime production designer Dean Tavoularis is working on the film's elaborate look from a 'secret New York location' and Coppola confirmed the pic will be shot at least partially in Gotham.
Although Coppola would not confirm MEGALOPOLIS would be entirely shot digitally, he said he is consulting with George Lucas, who lensed the upcoming STAR WARS: EPISODE II on the Sony 24p hi-def video camera, about ways to take advantage of the latest digital technology."
This is, after all, the guy who directed ONE FROM THE HEART out of his custom-modified Winnebago called The Silverfish. Coppola's a big dreamer, and I miss him as a vital voice in film. I always root for someone like him to have their big comeback, their reannouncement, and I'll admit... I'm intrigued by the idea of this epic of his.
Over at Teletext UK, they also talked with Coppola about the project, and they had this to say:
"[Coppola] told Teletext 'It deals with a man who wants to build a city of the future, a utopia, and it's about the forces that shape it.' The premise of the film is this: What if scientists and artists worked together in the future? Coppola said 'The scale of this film is equal to if not larger than Apocalypse Now. Megalopolis is a mix of New York and Ancient Rome. I'm working with George Lucas on the use of SFX and CGI for Megalopolis - how to use the tools properly.'"
Ummmmm... yes, please.
"Moriarty" out.
