Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis Casts Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito: Report

Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis has reportedly added Giancarlo Esposito to its ensemble lineup. According to Deadline, the Breaking Bad star has been tapped to play an undisclosed role, in a film described as the acclaimed director’s passion project that spanned decades. The actor started the year off on a high – winning Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Awards earlier this month for his performance in Better Call Saul, and now scores his first opportunity to work with the filmmaker of The Godfather.

Megalopolis turned heads in late 2021 when news broke that Coppola was looking to fund his own film, after a decade of silence. The report claims that the budget is set at just under $100 million (approximately Rs. 816 crore), with the production “on schedule and within budget”. This contradicts a report by The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, whose sources claimed the film had “fallen into chaos” and lost its art department. While Coppola isn’t exactly known for having the smoothest filming processes, he later disputed that report, stating that while there was indeed some turnover in the crew, it wasn’t his pocket” and that the characterization was “inaccurate”.

In Megalopolis, Esposito joins a cast of A-list actors including Adam Driver (Marriage Story), Forest Whitaker (Arrival), Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), Jon Voight (Heat), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Aubrey Plaza (The White Lotus), Shia LaBeouf (Transformers), Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) and Jason Schwartzman (The French Dispatch). While Coppola first penned the screenplay in the 1980s, it was eventually shelved in 2001 after 9/11 hit the headlines. Plot details about Megalopolis are sparse, but it is described as taking place in a post-disaster New York City, which an architect intends to rebuild as a utopia. Meanwhile, Deadline’s report calls it an “epic story of political ambition, genius and dangerous love.”

“There’s a certain way everyone thinks a movie should be, and it goes against the grain if you have another idea,” Coppola said last year, in reference to Megalopolis, at the 50th anniversary of his detective epic, The Godfather. “People can be very reluctant, but sometimes the other idea represents what’s to come in the future. It’s worth considering. LED screen, implemented on big budget projects such as The Batman, The Mandalorian and the recently deleted 1899. A cheaper and more traditional green screen approach.

Esposito himself has kept busy, having recently starred in Netflix heist series Kaleidoscope and reprising his role as Moff Gideon in the Star Wars universe series The Mandalorian season 3, which airs March 1 on Disney+ Hotstar.

Currently, there are no release details for Megalopolis.

---