Francis Ford Coppola is having a tough time securing distribution for his expensive self-financed passion project, Megalopolis. Why aren’t studio execs biting? Will the legendary filmmaker have better luck after the film premieres at Cannes in May?
Also: Skydance CEO David Ellison is one step closer to a merger with Shari Redstone-controlled Paramount Global and parent company, National Amusements. How could the deal affect Paramount board members? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni dive in.
Make him an offer he can’t refuse? After Coppola held a private screening for studio execs, family, and friends, sources say that the filmmaker’s self-financed Megalopolis is going to be a hard sell for studios. “This was a passion project, it played very much like an idiosyncratic art film,” says Belloni. “You know, it's dystopian, it's got lots of themes, and nudity, and a bunch of things that are turning off a mainstream audience of studio executives.”
What about prints and advertising? According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Coppola is looking for a distributor to cover the film’s advertising spend on top of the film’s massive budget. “If he wants it in theaters, we're told he wants tens of millions being spent on a marketing campaign, which is the normal thing, and he would like the suitor for this film, that hasn't come forward, to pay,” says Masters.
For justice, we must go to Cannes? While studios haven’t stepped forward with offers as of now, there’s a chance that a positive reception by an international audience at Cannes could sway feelings. “He's gonna take this movie to Cannes, which he said he wasn't going to do unless it had a distributor,” Belloni explains. “Maybe the French will be the contrary voices here and embrace the film and it will turn into, you know, an ‘artiste masterpiece,’ but we'll see what happens in France.”
Mission: Possible? Having partnered with Skydance on films like Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission: Impossible series, Paramount head Shari Redstone appears to favor CEO David Ellison among the company’s suitors, but the merger appears to be signaling danger for Paramount board members. “People I talked to say this will undoubtedly lead to a shareholder suit, because by buying Shari’s company and then having the company buy his company, Skydance, a lot of regular investors who aren't Shari Redstone are going to get screwed,” Masters explains.