“Megalopolis” has a new resident.
TheWrap has confirmed that Giancarlo Esposito, perhaps best known for his role as heavies in “Breaking Bad” (and “Better Call Saul”) and “The Mandalorian,” has joined Francis Ford Coppola’s sprawling sci-fi epic. He joins an already stacked cast that includes Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Shia LeBeouf, James Remar and D.B. Sweeney.
The plot for “Megalopolis” concerns an architect who becomes obsessed with rebuilding a formerly grand city. Coppola first started thinking about the idea in the 1980’s (last year on a podcast Rob Lowe said the director brought it up to him on the set of “The Outsiders”) and by 2007 Coppola had suggested that the project would never actually see the light of day. That changed last year when it was announced that Coppola would be sinking more than $120 million of his own money into the project, which was funded by Coppola selling off part of his famous winery.
Depending on who you talk to, the production of “Megalopolis” hit a snag earlier this month when Coppola fired the visual effects department and saw the art department step down, with reports suggesting these events that were part of a larger “chaotic” atmosphere on the set, with the suggestion that the movie might not finish shooting. Coppola and Driver strenuously denied these rumors, saying the project was not in jeopardy of falling apart. And the fact that a big new cast member was just added to the production does indeed suggest that the wheels of “Megalopolis” are still spinning.
In addition to “Megalopolis,” Esposito is a voice in the Russo Brothers’ new sci-fi epic for Netflix “The Electric State,” starred in the recently released Netflix series “Kaleidoscope” (the one you can watch in any order) and will be back for the new seasons of “The Boys” and “The Mandalorian,” both scheduled to premiere later this year.
