Failure and madness: Joker, J.Lo, Costner, Coppola and Nam in unchecked ambition

Now, we’re in the midst of prestige movie season — festival favorites and indie favorites causing traffic jams at single-screen theaters in cities across the world. across the country — it looks like 2024 is a huge success for movies. But, of course, not all is well this year. Especially for some admirably bold efforts by fairly famous filmmakers that fail resoundingly.

Back in May, many of us working in the film industry boarded a plane to the South of France, where a wealth of exciting new films awaited us in Cannes. There will certainly be discoveries, bold new announcements about a rising class of global directors. A number of international stars also returned, as happens every year at Cannes. But in 2024, the two older American giants are also set to premiere their latest works, something a rarer sight at the festival. The expectations for those are probably the highest.

© Warner Bros/Everett Collection.

One side of the ticket is Francis Ford Coppola, launched the long-running sci-fi, civilian drama Megalopolis, his first film in 13 years—and certainly his biggest, most expensive effort since 1992 Dracula by Bram Stoker. The most relevant part of Megalopolis The story—before any of us saw it, anyway—was the most inspiring: Coppola financed the film himself, selling off many of his wine industry assets to Finally realizing the dream he had cherished for more than 40 years. ABOVE Vanity fair‘S Little golden boys podcast, I optimistically predicted a breakout comeback: perhaps this crazy, workable movie from a legend of yesteryear could win Best Picture.

Just a little less enthusiastic, people going to Cannes look forward to it Kevin Costner‘S Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1, the first in a planned four-film series that Costner partially self-financed. (That word “series” would eventually haunt the film.) If everything goes according to plan, these films will comprise a polished Western epic not seen since Costner’s films . Dance with wolves stormed both the box office and the Oscars in 1990. Costner’s directorial fortunes were much more difficult after that landmark success, but he has recently returned to television. Perhaps this year is the time for Costner to reassert himself as a movie star, capable of sweeping old-fashioned America in a way that few others dare to do today.

There are high hopes for the Croisette, a swaggering American chauvinism that cuts its way through all the usual Euro trends. This is the bridgehead for the revival of Hollywood masters, funded by the masters themselves. The successes of Megalopolis And Skyline will teach an important lesson to uncompromising, IP-crazy studios: audiences crave new things, even from old hands. It’s time to usher in the Third Golden Age, one that has nothing to do with superheroes and everything to do with a singular, passionate vision. A new day is about to dawn across France.