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Giancarlo Esposito Joins Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis
Megalopolis, the long-in-development project from 6-time Academy Award winner Francis Ford Coppola, has added yet another all-star performer per a Deadline report. Emmy-nominated actor Giancarlo Esposito is now part of the film that is currently in production. Esposito joins an all-star ensemble cast which is led by Adam Driver along with other cast members such as Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, James Remar, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Kusman, D.B. Sweeney, Chloe Fineman, and newcomer Bailey Ives.
The film has been on the mind of Coppola since the 1980s and is a passion project for the storied director. First going into pre-production in 2001, the film is written and directed by Coppola, who is also personally financing the film with a budget that comes in at just under $100 million. Taking heavy inspiration from the second Catiline Conspiracy, the film takes place in New York City following a disaster that wrecked the city and wiped off its urban infrastructure. Following the reconstruction of the city, the film follows an architect who is intent on braving the odds to rebuild New York City as a utopia after the devastating natural disaster. As Deadline describes in the report, it is a "epic story of political ambition, genius, and dangerous love." Filming of the film finally began in Georgia and New York in November 2022 and is set to film until March 2023. Earlier this month, there were reports of "chaos" on the film's set, but both Coppola and Driver have denied these reports.
Giancarlo Esposito is widely known for his role as Gustavo Fring in AMC's Breaking Bad as well as its prequel series "Better Call Saul", a role that saw him nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series once in both series. He also received a nomination for the same award for his role as Moff Gideon in Disney+'s Star Wars series The Mandalorian. He is currently starring in Netflix's heist drama series "Kaleidoscope". Other future projects for Esposito include a new AMC series called "The Driver", an American adaptation of a U.K. miniseries of the same name. And he’s in production on the Russo Brothers Netflix film "The Electric State" and also stars in Amazon’s The Boys.
At the moment, Esposito's role in Megalopolis has not been revealed, but it would be interesting to see how he fits in with Coppola's bigger picture for his passion project.
