Adam Driver, Laurence Fishburne Cast in Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis'

Adam Driver, Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel and Jon Voight have joined Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis as the film's main characters.

According to reports, the esteemed filmmaker is creating the project as an independently-financed film and gave this description, " The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius, and conflicted love." Deadline adds that Coppola will be pushing through with a budget just below $100 million USD, with production set to begin this fall.

In a recent Deadline interview, Coppola explained that he would like people to "discuss [Megalopolis]" even after his passing as a way to start meaningful conversations. “What would make me really happy? It’s not winning a lot of Oscars because I already have a lot and maybe more than I deserve. And it’s not that I make a lot of money, although I think over time it will make a lot of money because anything that the people keep looking at and finding new things, that makes money. So somewhere down the line, way after I’m gone, all I want is for them to discuss [Megalopolis] and, is the society we’re living in the only one available to us? How can we make it better? Education, mental health?"

He continued, "What the movie really is proposing is that utopia is not a place. It’s how can we make everything better? Every year, come up with two, three or four ideas that make it better. I would be smiling in my grave if I thought something like that happened, because people talk about what movies really mean if you give them something. If you encouraged people to discuss marriage and education and health and justice and opportunities and freedom and all these wonderful things that human beings have conceived of. And ask the question, how can we make it even better? That would be great. Because I bet you they would make it better if they had that conversation.”

Stay tuned for an official trailer and release date.

Elsewhere in entertainment, the Doctor Strange 2 screenwriter opened up about wanting to cast Tom Cruise as Iron Man.