Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis features a 23-year actor-director reunion that most audiences wouldn't know about. Throughout his five-decade career, Coppola is most commonly associated with actors like Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and Talia Shire, who all appeared in his famous Godfather trilogy, among other projects. Aside from Shire, the cast of Megalopolis features primarily younger movie stars who are new to working with Coppola, from Adam Driver to Aubrey Plaza to Nathalie Emmanuel.
Megalopolis stars Adam Driver as Cesar Catalina, a futuristic architect who learns to harness a mysterious power called Megalon to build a utopian city. The city's mayor, Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), resists Catalina's ideas, making him the film's main antagonist. Giancarlo Esposito is a veteran actor best known for his role as Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, which granted him widespread recognition decades into his career. He's since found success with supporting roles in major movies and TV shows, including The Boys, The Mandalorian, and more.
Giancarlo Esposito Has Been Linked To Megalopolis Since 2001
Giancarlo Esposito Attended A Table Read For An Earlier Version Of Megalopolis
Image via Lionsgate
Megalopolis has been a passion project of Coppola's for decades after initially attempting to get the project off the ground following Apocalypse Now's release in 1979. He attempted to develop the film further on multiple occasions, even bringing some movie star actors together for a table read in 2001. This included Giancarlo Esposito, who'd previously appeared in Coppola's The Cotton Club as a young actor all the way back in 1984. The 2001 script seems to be rather different from what ultimately ended up in the final movie.
Apparently, Coppola had a plan in mind to develop Megalopolis with an entirely different cast in 2001, but the idea was obstructed due to September 11th. Coppola didn't want to make a film about a utopian city after what had occurred in New York and returned to it in 2007, where he struggled to find funding. It's unclear what stage the script was at during this time or if Esposito was still linked to the project, but he's the only person from the 2001 table read to make it into the final cut of the film.
Giancarlo Esposito Is The Only Actor From Megalopolis' Table Reads To Be In The Final Movie
Several Iconic Movie Stars Read Parts For Megalopolis
Image via Lionsgate
Compared to the rest of the 2001 Megalopolis table read, Giancarlo Esposito was a lesser-known name. He'd done some outstanding films before Breaking Bad, but he was far from being as famous as he is today. However, Coppola did have some big-name movie actors involved at the time, including Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Uma Thurman, James Gandolfini, and Russell Crowe. It's hard to say if this version of Megalopolis would have worked better, but it's fascinating to think about what it would look like.
