For someone that’s made plenty of headlines openly trashing the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its lack of artistic merits, Francis Ford Coppola faces a lot of pressure for long-gestating passion project Megalopolis to succeed.
With a star-studded cast, an estimated budget of $120 million (most of which came directly out of the filmmaker’s own pocket), and plenty of visual effects, the legendary director is aiming to play Kevin Feige at his own game by delivering a high quality slice of mass-marketed entertainment that needs to do a substantial turn at the box office simply to break even.
Of course, as one of the greatest to ever step behind the camera that’s got a string of classics and five Academy Awards under his belt, accusations that he was ill-equipped to helm a “Marvel-level” movie don’t hold much water. Unless Megalopolis fails spectacularly, in which case the decades-in-development fantasy is going to look like a terrible decision for all involved.
Despite being one of the MCU’s most prominent opponents, though, Coppola has lifted another page out of the comic book company’s playbook after it was revealed that a tie-in graphic novel will accompany the release of the film, with artist Jacob Phillips effusive in his praise of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now architect.
“He’s been writing for decades trying to get it exactly where he wants it to be and waiting for the technology to catch up to what he thinks it should be visually. And so, he said he wanted a graphic novel component to it. It’s going to be tied into the film in ways that that I think are unique and interesting. It’s not a straight adaptation or anything like that, but it is part of the world he’s creating.”
The proof will be in the pudding as always, but you know for a fact that MCU stalwarts will be sharpening their knives waiting for Megalopolis to crash and burn. We hope it doesn’t, because nobody should encourage failure, but we’ll just have to wait and see.