Francis Ford Coppola deliberately cast 'cancelled' actors in Megalopolis

Francis Ford Coppola cast "cancelled" stars in 'Megalopolis' because he didn’t want the movie to be considered "some woke Hollywood production".

The upcoming sci-fi drama includes controversial actors Shia LaBeouf – who was accused of sexual assault in 2021 – and far-right Donald Trump supporter Jon Voight, though the 85-year-old director has revealed he purposely brought on the stars to avoid the picture being written off as a "woke" film that's "lecturing viewers".

He explained to Rolling Stone magazine: "What I didn’t want to happen is that we’re deemed some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers.

"There were people who are archconservatives and others who are extremely politically progressive. But we were all working on one film together. That was interesting, I thought."

'The Godfather' filmmaker praised LaBeouf for his work on the flick, though admitted the actor had "deliberately" tried to create tension between himself and the director.

He said: "Shia really took to it. I had no experience working with him prior to this, but he deliberately sets up a tension between himself and the director to an extreme degree.

"He reminds me of Dennis Hopper, who would do something similar, and then you'd say, 'Just go do anything,' and then they go off and do something brilliant."

Looking beyond the picture – which stars Adam Driver as an architect who wants to build a utopian city after a cataclysmic disaster leaves a New York-like metropolis in ruins – the director revealed he was not planning to retire after the movie hits theatres on 27 September.

When asked if 'Megalopolis' - which he personally financed - was going to be his final film, he said: "No, I’m working on two potential projects right now.

"One is a regular sort of movie that I’d like someone to finance and make in England, because I don’t have a big history with my wife in England. Everywhere else I go, I’m reminded of her all the time.

"The other is called 'Distant Vision', which is the story of three generations of an Italian American family like mine, but fictionalised, during which the phenomenon of television was invented. I would finance it with whatever 'Megalopolis' does. I’ll want to do another roll of the dice with that one."