Movie Brats George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola are heading to Cannes

George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, two old friends whose careers have long intersected. Coppola, of course, got George Lucas his start in the business, and Lucas dropped Apocalypse Now to make Star Wars. Lucas sits on a mountain of cash after selling Star Wars to Disney for a cool $4 billion. Coppola sold his winery to make a movie that no studio wants to distribute and found “sadness” in his protege’s success. Now, they’re both gearing up to take the Cannes Film Festival by storm—albeit for entirely different reasons.

Coppola is heading to Cannes to let the market decide the fate of his long-gestating passion project, Megalopolis, which only cost him his winery. It was an encouraging artistic gambit from an old master that Hollywood was apprehensive to reward. After a recent screening, many of Hollywood’s brightest were concerned about audiences being unable to distinguish the good guy from the bad. It used to be so easy. Francis Ford Coppola would put out a movie, say, The Godfather Part II or Apocalypse Now, and the good guy was right there, free of moral complications. Others presumably worried that words like “From the twisted mind of Francis Ford Coppola” or “Starring Shia LaBeouf” would pose too great a challenge to any studio’s marketing department. Nevertheless, according to Variety, Coppola is going to test his luck with the buyers at Cannes, where Megalopolis will premiere in competition on May 17. As hard as it is to believe, Cannes Director Thierry Fremaux is actually excited to screen a movie directed by the guy who made The Conversation. Go figure.

“Megalopolis is a project that he wanted to achieve for so long, and he did it independently, in his own way, as an artist,” Fremaux told Variety. “He built the legend of the Cannes Film Festival, and it would be an honor to welcome him back as a filmmaker who comes to present his new film.”

As for his old pal George Lucas, he’ll be heading to Cannes for a more prestigious reason, such as accepting an honorary award. On May 25, the 47th anniversary of Star Wars, Lucas will receive the Honorary Palme d’Or, perhaps as an apology for snubbing Star Wars: Episode II — Attack Of The Clones in 2002. Lucas said that the festival holds a “special place” in his heart, recalling his joy when his first feature, THX-1138, was selected for the first Directors’ Fortnight, a program for first-time directors. Hey, maybe he can use some of the honorary clout to get his buddy a distributor.