Last night Showbiz 411 reported that Oscar Isaac, the long-rumored lead in Francis Coppola‘s still-in-the-works Megalopolis, has “passed” on the role.

No one (myself included) is allowed to speculate negatively on this long-gestating project. We all want Coppola to hit Megalopolis out of the park, but we’re also speculating right now about what might have prompted Isaac’s departure.

I’ll tell you this much — Coppola needs to come up with a logline that won’t scare the shit out of prospective viewers. Because “a love story that’s also a philosophical investigation of the nature of man”…I intend to see Megalopolis no matter what, but that description does kinda scare me a bit. It would scare anyone.

Posted on 2.23.22: “I think Francis Coppola (whom I had the pleasure of doing a two-hour phone interview with 41 years ago) was one guy when he made The Godfather, The Conversation and The Godfather, Part II. He was a slightly different guy when he made Apocalypse Now, and a faintly altered version of the Apocalypse Now guy when he made One From The Heart. He was a whole different dude when he made Jack — that’s for damn sure. And a much different guy when he made Tetro and Twixt.”