©Courtesy of Youth Without Youth 

Just a week before the release of Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola is already talking of his next project: a filmic adaptation of Edith Wharton’s 1922 novel The Glimpses of the Moon.

Describing the novel as “a whimsical, very interesting story that I love,” Coppola was quoted in the Telegraph, a British newspaper, that he hoped to shoot the film in London. His projected film, he said, would include “strong dance and musical elements” that would make it “a very odd confection.”

Wharton’s novel tells the story of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, two impoverished New Yorkers who hope to marry but agree to separate if either of them finds a more stable financial relationship. Thanks to their wealthier friends, they are able to spend their honeymoon in several luxurious venues, but they find that their new relationship is beset by jealousy and the prospect of unfaithfulness.

Although his much-touted Megalopolis seems to be falling short of his expectations, Coppola told the Washington Post that he believes the epic will “play for 40 years.”
The indefatigable Coppola, who turned 85 in April, also reportedly has plans to re-edit several of his earlier films, including Youth Without Youth (2007) and Tetro (2009). The auteur has also been working on another epic that narrates the story of three generations of an Italian American family and the invention of the medium of television. Titled Distant Vision, the story is based on Buddenbrooks, the 1901 novel by Thomas Mann.

Francis Ford Coppola first came to prominence with several acclaimed films he directed during the 1970s, including The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now. In addition to Megalopolis, several of his later films include Rumble Fish (1983), The Godfather Part III (1990), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), and The Rainmaker (1997). Over the course of his half-century career, he has won five Academy Awards.

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