LOS ANGELES - Francis Ford Coppola's new film "Megalopolis" -- a wildly ambitious and divisive epic that cost its legendary director a vast personal fortune to make -- has finally found a US distributor.
Hollywood studio Lionsgate will release the decades-in-the-making movie in North American theatres on September 27, the company said in a statement to AFP.
The announcement ends speculation over whether the film would ever reach the big screen in Coppola's native US, after its much-hyped world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last month left the industry confounded.
In a plot that is hard to summarize, Adam Driver stars as a seemingly magical architect whose efforts to rebuild a decaying city into a futuristic utopia are thwarted by its resentful mayor (Giancarlo Esposito).
The movie boasts a stellar cast including Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman.
Critics' responses have ranged from "a true modern masterwork" to a "catastrophe." Hopes for a quick sale to a top Hollywood studio at the French movie gathering did not materialize.
Announcing the deal, Lionsgate's movie division chair Adam Fogelson said his studio strives "to be a home for bold and daring artists, and Megalopolis proves there is no one more bold or daring than the maestro, Francis Ford Coppola."
Lionsgate is a mid-sized studio that has enjoyed success with smash-hit franchises such as "The Hunger Games", "John Wick" and "Saw."
It previously released extended versions of Coppola films including "Apocalypse Now" on home entertainment formats.
Terms of the new deal were not revealed.
But Coppola has said he spent $120-million of his own money to make "Megalopolis", selling a stake in his California vineyard.