Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming $100 million feature film “Megalopolis” has added actor Shia LaBeouf to the star-studded cast.  Coppola’s passion project, slated to begin production this fall, stars Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight and Laurence Fishburne. Talia Shire (Coppola’s sister who starred in his “Godfather” films), Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter and James Remar have also joined the cast.

Coppola wrote the screenplay for the film in the 1980s, and is financing the dream project himself. The plot has remained largely under wraps, but the film’s official logline teases new details: “The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius and conflicted love.”

LaBeouf’s casting comes after the actor had been blacklisted from Hollywood after musician FKA Twigs, his former romantic partner, filed a lawsuit against him for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress in 2020. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleged multiple incidents of physical abuse during the couple’s one-year relationship in 2018 and 2019. The lawsuit currently has yet to go to trial.

LaBeouf sought inpatient treatment after the allegations surfaced, and is set to appear in Abel Ferrara’s “Padre Pio,” which will open at the Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days section later this summer.

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