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I’ve predicted Megalopolis, anticipated as it is, will have a clear dividing point: the cultural commentariat hoping to see “another film by the director of The Godfather” and those who appreciate “something that looks and sounds like a Star Wars prequel.” I am very firmly in the latter, was duly excited by the first image, and can only be pleased with the time-stopping debut teaser, arriving today via Le Pacte.

It comes with a sad addenedum. Coppola, sharing the teaser on Instagram, noted:

Megalopolis has always been a film dedicated to my dear wife Eleanor. I really had hoped to celebrate her birthday together this May 4th. But sadly that was not to be, so let me share with everyone a gift on her behalf.

As Coppola recently told Vanity Fair, “I wouldn’t have been able to make it without standing as I do on the shoulders of G.B. Shaw,...

Exclusive: CAA has signed Tony and Olivier-Award winning director Ivo van Hove in all areas.

Belgian-born van Hove has built a reputation for experimental revisions of Hollywood and Broadway classics including Broadway revival productions of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, for which he received a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, and The Crucible as well as Lee Hall’s Network (starring Bryan Cranston and Tatiana Maslany), All About Eve (with Gillian Anderson in the Bette Davis role) and Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story.

Last year, van Hove teamed with John Wells to develop Doll at Warner Bros. Television. The project is described as a psychological thriller series set in the ruthless world of a modern music conservatory. The former’s artistic collaborator, Jan Versweyveld, was set to serve as production and lighting designer on the project, which marks the duo’s first foray into scripted television.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDario Argento's Dark GlassesFollowing his appearance in Gaspar Noé's Vortex, Dario Argento returns to directing with Dark Glasses, his first feature since Dracula 3D (2012). Starring Asia Argento and Andrea Zhang, the thriller follows a serial killer, a blind sex worker, and a 10-year-old Chinese boy in Rome's Chinese community. John Woo is also set to make a return to Hollywood with Silent Night, a "no dialogue" action film about a father (played by Joel Kinnaman) who seeks to avenge his son's death. Film Labs, a "worldwide network of artist-run film laboratories," now has a new website! The website includes more than 500 films made at artist-run film labs from Vancouver to South Korea, as well as technical resources and distribution information. Dancer, choreographer, theatrical director, and filmmaker Wakefield Poole has died. A pioneer of the gay pornography industry,...

Zack Snyder has been spending the past five years talking about “The Fountainhead” and wanting to turn Ayn Rand’s politically charged novel into a film. But over that time, he’s worked on a number of other projects, with DC superheroes and zombies. So, does that mean “The Fountainhead” is next in line after “Army of the Dead?” Not so much. You see, society just isn’t ready for Snyder’s version of the film, just yet.

Continue reading Zack Snyder Is Putting ‘The Fountainhead’ Film On Hold For Now “So That Everyone Won’t Freak Out” at The Playlist.

With Zack Snyder’s release of his director’s cut of “Justice League” coming to HBO Max this week, many are wondering what the filmmaker’s next project will be. In 2016, Snyder announced his plans to adapt Ayn Rand’s controversial tome “The Fountainhead,” but in a recent interview with the New York Times those plans are on hold for the foreseeable future.

“‘Fountainhead’ right now is on the back burner,” he told the Times. “I don’t know how that movie gets made, at least not right away.” As to why he thinks it’s not happening, Snyder believed the political climate still isn’t right for the feature film. “We need a less divided country and a little more liberal government to make that movie, so people don’t react to it in a certain way.”

“The Fountainhead” centers on the young architect Howard Roark, whose dream of...

Director Zack Snyder ("Watchmen") continues developing his feature film project "The Fountainhead", adapting author Ayn Rand's 1943 dramatic romance, to be produced by Snyder's The Stone Quarry company:

"...in 'The Fountainhead', 'Howard Roark', is an architect who designs modernist buildings...

"...refusing to compromise with an architectural establishment unwilling to accept innovation. 

"His struggle reflects a belief that individualism is superior to collectivism.

"Roark is opposed by 'second-handers', who value conformity over independence and integrity, including Roark's former classmate 'Peter Keating', who succeeds by following popular styles, but turns to Roark for help with his own design problems.

"'Ellsworth Toohey', a socialist architecture critic who uses his influence to promote his political and social agenda, tries to destroy Roark's career. 

"Tabloid newspaper publisher 'Gail Wynand' seeks to shape popular opinion, befriending Roark, then betrays him when public opinion turns in a direction he cannot control.

"Spider-Man" co-creator Steve Ditko's faceless crime fighter 'The Question", a ruthless adherent of 'objectivism', is currently in consideration for live-action film:

'The Question' ('Vic Sage') created by writer/illustrator Steve Ditko, debuted in Charlton Comics' Blue Beetle #1 (June 1967), followed by Charlton's "Mysterious Suspense" (October 1968) .

The character was then acquired by DC Comics in the early 1980's...

...and incorporated into the 'DC Universe', with former 'Gotham' police officer 'Renee Montoya', a protégé of Sage, becoming the new 'Question'.

"...in 'Hub City', TV investigative journalist 'Vic Sage' looking into criminal activities by a 'Dr. Twain', was approached by 'Aristotle Rodor', a former college professor, telling Sage about an artificial skin he had developed with Twain called 'Pseudoderm' with sometimes fatal side effects.

"Rodor and Twain agreed to abandon the project and parted ways, but Rodor discovered Twain had decided to proceed with an illegal sale of...

This artistic depiction of the dark side of female sexuality, depicted by first time director and renowned actress Halina Reijn, takes us inside of a seasoned, freelance psychologist who becomes completely infatuated by the sex offender she is treating in a penal institution.

Halina Reijn is a renowned director, actress, author and producer. She is the winner of multiple awards, including the Dutch film Award, the Golden Calf for Best Actress , the Dutch theater awards Theo D’Or and Colombina, as well as the Courbois Pearl, an award which honors an actress who has made an indelible impression, both on stage as in film and television. Since 2017 she is also the proud owner of the Theo Mann-Bouwmeester Ring, an award to honor an actress who has contributed greatly to the Dutch theatre.

Halina Reijn takes on her first directorial challenge without inhibition, fully aware of tackling sensitive issues which society...

Joseph Baxter Apr 4, 2019

Megalopolis, the long-planned sci-fi dream project of Francis Ford Coppola, is finally moving forward.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is a mooted movie that’s almost as mythical as the sci-fi-utopia New York City in which it was to be set. While the project – the planned pièce de résistance of his storied career – managed to shoot 30 minutes of second unit footage, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks made an unwelcome atmosphere for his planned vision. However, the Megalopolis myth never died, and now, nearly two decades after its false start, Coppola appears to be moving forward with the project!

Coppola, the legendary director/screenwriter of The Godfather Trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders and The Cotton Club, is reportedly making preparations to make his Megalopolis dream movie into a reality this year, reports Deadline. Just a few days short of his 80th birthday, Coppola has dusted off his script and...

Francis Ford Coppola is turning 80 this month and he’s marking the occasion by announcing plans to kick off production sometime this year on a passion project he’s wanted to direct for over three decades: “Megalopolis[/link].” The science-fiction epic was written in the early 1980s but always took a backseat to Coppola’s other projects. By the time “The Godfather” director was ready to move into production at the turn of the century, the September 11 attacks happened and shut the production down as the film is based in New York City and details the attempts of an architect to reconstruct a utopian version of the city following a mega-disaster.

“Yes, I plan this year to begin my longstanding ambition to make a major work utilizing all I have learned during my long career, beginning at age 16 doing theater, and that will be an epic on a grand scale, which I’ve entitled ‘Megalopolis,...

Director Zack Snyder ("Watchmen") has confirmed his new production company is called "The Stone Quarry", as he continues developing his next feature film project "The Fountainhead", adapting author Ayn Rand's 1943 dramatic romance novel:

"...'Howard Roark', is an architect who designs modernist buildings...

"...refusing to compromise with an architectural establishment unwilling to accept innovation. 

"His struggle reflects a belief that individualism is superior to collectivism.

"Roark is opposed by 'second-handers', who value conformity over independence and integrity, including Roark's former classmate 'Peter Keating', who succeeds by following popular styles, but turns to Roark for help with his own design problems.

"'Ellsworth Toohey', a socialist architecture critic who uses his influence to promote his political and social agenda, tries to destroy Roark's career. Tabloid newspaper publisher 'Gail Wynand' seeks to shape popular opinion, befriending Roark, then betrays him when public opinion turns in a direction he cannot control.

Having shaped the shared motion picture universe for nearly half a decade – on a path that Warner Bros. is no longer interested in pursuing, mind you – Zack Snyder’s departure from the Dceu, whether he was relieved of his duties or withdrew voluntarily, has seemingly forced the founding father to purge his cinematic blueprint for thirteenth highest-grossing film franchise online as some sort of coping mechanism.

As a result, you can forgive us for having grown accustomed to the former head honcho of DC’s extended universe and his social media hi-jinks. Nevertheless, it would appear that now another major player in Snyder’s Dceu, Larry Fong, who served as cinematographer on Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, will be a regular contributor to the superhero group chat going forward.

Fong, whose next project as Dp, Shane Black’s The Predator, currently resides in post-production, confirmed via Twitter that “at...

Having shepherded the Dceu for nearly half a decade, making it the thirteenth highest-grossing film franchise of all-time, it would appear that Zack Snyder, who’s been purging his unfulfilled blueprint online for some time now, seemingly using it as some sort of coping mechanism, will have another major player from his grandiose vision act as a regular contributor to the conversation moving forward.

Larry Fong, who served as cinematographer on Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, confirmed yesterday that “at least part” of the Martha Kent (Diane Lane) abduction sequence was cut from the 2016 blockbuster. According to Fong, the scene in question – which saw Superman (Henry Cavill) – upon learning that Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) has abducted his mother – scour Metropolis in search of his Earth-born mom, was ultimately removed as it was deemed “too dark.”

Speaking of the Man of Steel’s archenemy, Fong, whose next project as Dp is The Predator,...

Earlier this year, Zack Snyder stepped back from the very bright spotlight of “Justice League” to deal with a tragic, family situation, and passed the reins to Joss Whedon, who will be finishing picture. Now, the filmmaker is slowly stepping back behind the camera, flexing some creative muscles with a new, iPhone shot short film, “Snow Steam Iron” (trailer below). However, even as the director gets back to work, he won’t be reuniting with the “Justice League” gang.

Continue reading Zack Snyder Not Returning To ‘Justice League,’ Still Working On ‘The Fountainhead’ at The Playlist.