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Shia LaBeouf Joins Francis Ford Coppola’s New Movie Amid Controversy
Francis Ford Coppola's new movie, Megalopolis, adds Shia LaBeouf to its star-studded cast amidst several controversies surrounding the actor. Coppola, the legendary writer/director behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. However, his 1982 self-financed flop, One from the Heart, hindered his career as he spent the rest of the decade working to pay back his debts. Now, Coppola is betting it all again by self-financing another passion project.
Megalopolis, which Coppola wrote during the 1980s, is reportedly set in an alternate reality version of New York City called New Rome, and the film's logline hints at an "epic story of political ambition, genius, and conflicted love." The all-star Megalopolis cast already includes Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, and Aubrey Plaza. Now, with filming set to start this fall, Coppola's $100 million movie has added another big name to its cast.
After initial reports first surfaced several weeks ago, Variety has confirmed that LaBeouf has joined the growing cast of Megalopolis. Though the controversial actor is the headline, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, and James Remar have also been added to the cast. Each actor's role is still undisclosed, though LaBeouf's is reportedly a "leading role."
LaBeouf's casting in Megalopolis is surprising given the several controversies surrounding the actor. For the past few years, he has essentially been blacklisted by Hollywood ever since musician FKA Twigs filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress in 2020, a case which will first appear in front of a judge in April 2023. LaBeouf was cast in Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling. However, he departed the project soon before filming began, leading to a recent public disagreement between the director and star over his reasons for exiting the project. LaBeouf also recently admitted to lying about being abused by his father to help promote his 2019 film Honey Boy.
Despite the mounting controversies against the actor, LaBeouf is set on a comeback. His next project will be Abel Ferrara's film Padre Pio, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival later this summer, and Megalopolis should continue to get the actor's career back on track. By putting up $120 million of his own money to finance Megalopolis, Coppola is already taking a major gamble to make the passion project possible, but casting a controversial actor like LaBeouf might be an unnecessary risk not worth taking.
