Jon Hamm left the ‘Megalopolis’ table and read thinking ‘I don’t know how this movie is going to do’

Francis Ford Coppola’s lifelong commitment to taking creative risks and betting on himself is culminating with “Megalopolis,” his self-financed passion project that recently finished production. The epic love story, which takes place in a futuristic city called New Rome, has been dogged by rumors of on-set dysfunction that Coppola and his top-notch cast have denied. But the film’s staggering scale impressed many cinephiles, including Jon Hamm.

In a new appearance on the Back to A Podcast to promote his role in “Maggie Moore(s),” Hamm praised Coppola for taking such an ambitious swing.

“Look at what Francis Ford Coppola is doing right now,” Hamm said. “He’s making a $300 million movie that he just wanted to make. I’ve read a table of it, I know how impossible it is to make this film. But he’s making it. And God bless him, that’s exactly what he should do.

Hamm explained that he got an inside look at Coppola’s creative process when he was invited to attend a tabletop reading of “Megalopolis.” Although Hamm isn’t starring in the film, he joined a circle of actors to help Coppola work on the script and left shocked at the scale of the project.

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“I was like, ‘I don’t know how this movie is going to do,'” she said. “I sat at a table with Al Pacino, Shia LaBeouf, all these amazing actors. I thought ‘I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I’m incredibly happy to be here in this room on the Paramount lot where ‘The Godfather’ was filmed 45 years ago when Robert Evans was around. Like ‘okay, I’ll be part of this.’”

Hamm’s comments echo similar remarks from “Megalopolis” star Adam Driver, who recently praised Coppola’s creativity and willingness to tackle such an ambitious project.

“’Megalopolis’ is one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been a part of, with Francis in particular,” Driver said. “It’s one of the best shooting experiences I’ve ever had. And the things that he’s done, there’s no frame of reference for that. It is so unique and creative and hopefully accessible to all. Which isn’t so elusive as to be for a certain audience, it’s for everyone. And it’s everything you hope it to be.