Sci-fi drama 'Megalopolis' strikes back in comic form

Following the widely panned release of Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola is giving his most ambitious project a second life, this time, in panels and ink. As per The Guardian, the 86-year-old director has unveiled Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis: An Original Graphic Novel, a reinterpretation of the sci-fi epic that was both a box office failure and critical misfire upon its debut last year.

The film, which starred Adam Driver and cost a reported USD120 million, largely self-financed through Coppola's vineyard sales, grossed a mere USD14 million globally. Despite a desperate marketing pivot that falsely claimed The Godfather and Apocalypse Now had initially been slammed by critics, Megalopolis failed to win over audiences or awards voters. Instead, it garnered infamy at the Golden Raspberries, including nods for Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor (Jon Voight).

Now, in what may be the legendary director's swan song, Coppola is championing a new form for the story, one that allows his sprawling vision room to breathe. The graphic novel, written by Chris Ryall and illustrated by Jacob Phillips, is not merely a storyboard-to-page adaptation. "I hoped the graphic novel would take its own flight, with its own artists and writer," Coppola said in a statement, "so that it would be a sibling of the film, rather than just an echo."

Ryall paralleled that sentiment: "Coppola's storytelling challenged and inspired me at every turn. I hope I've created something that both honours and expands the world of the original film."

This pivot to a graphic novel marks a rare case of a film becoming source material for a comic, flipping the usual superhero-fuelled dynamic. It also reaffirms Coppola's enduring belief in artistic freedom. "Art can never be constrained but rather always a parallel expression," he said.

Megalopolis had a stellar cast, including Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne and Aubrey Plaza and the film received a ten-minute standing ovation at Cannes last year.

At a press conference the morning after it debuted, Coppola addressed putting his own money into the USD120 million project: "The money doesn't matter. What is important are the friends. A friend will never let you down. The money may evaporate."

While Megalopolis may have floundered on screen, its rebirth in graphic form offers a new chapter, and perhaps redemption, for one of cinema's most daring auteurs. Whether audiences will follow him from celluloid to the page remains to be seen. But if Coppola has proven anything over his long career, it's that he never stops trying to rewrite the rules.