Megalopolis'Trailer: Francis Ford Coppola Movie Is His Best Work Ever
By: Patrick Frater (Variety)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
"Our new film 'Megalopolis' is the best work I've ever had the privilege to preside over," reads a quote attributed to iconic director Francis Ford Coppola attached to the official trailer for his new epic film.
The picture, which will premiere in competition on Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, has been a project many years in the making for the director. He first began work on the screenplay in the 1980s.
The legendary filmmaker behind "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" has invested $120 million of his own money into the film.
The trailer starts with a voice-over musing about the decline of empires - "when does an empire die? Does it collapse in one terrible moment? No, no. But there comes a time when people no longer believe in it" — before cutting to a Roman chariot race, a metropolitan skyscape and scenes of protest.
According to the official synopsis, "'Megalopolis' is a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor's daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves."
"Megalopolis" sports an all-star cast, with Driver leading the pack alongside Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D.B. Sweeney, and Dustin Hoffman.
Coppola wrote and directed, with Fred Roos, Barry Hirsch and Michael Bederman producing. Executive producers are: Anahid Nazarian, Barrie Osborne, Darren Demetre.
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The movie is self financed and, it's been reported, is too weird for Hollywood. It will be interesting to see if it gets a wide US distribution.
Being too weird for Hollywood is quite the feat.
If it's anything like or as successful as "Apocalypse Now" or the "Godfather'' it should be interesting to say the least.
Coppola is a pretty good storyteller. This looks pretty fantastical though.
Just Coppola's name attached to almost pretty much assures it will be a success.
Just watched the trailer on IMDb, and although it does look weird, is that so different from the direction movies have been going more recently?
Everything Everywhere All At Once was pretty weird, but still did really well with both critics and audiences, so maybe this one might have some legs. I think it's too early to tell though.
What bothers me about so many recent films is that the films have so much darkness in them that makes it impossible to see the action, and the actors speak "naturally" mumbling and at 150 mph making it difficult for me to understand what they're saying - is it attempted "artistic creativity"?. But I guess my waning vision and hearing due to my age could be half the problem.
I think these recent films are leaning into the 4K HDR and UHD stuff. That means to see it outside the movie theater one needs to have the hardware that supports that tech. I do, but not everyone does. It does give the director and cinematographer more depth in color and shades of black.
I remember when the last season of Game of Thrones episode 3 The Long Night was shone. There was a lot of complaining people couldn't see parts of the episode because it was so dark. It was really bad. Then I got the box set on 4K and watched it and could see all the detail as it was meant to be when it was shot.
My eyes are also going so I can't do subtitles anymore. I spend more time trying to read them and lose out on what's happening.
It's necessary to watch a subtitled film at least twice. The first time to read the subtitles so you'll know what they're saying and the second time around when you watch the action.
I don't go to movies anymore so I will wait until it comes a streaming service. It looks good. I like stories like this
Too weird for normal people, and too complicated for the comic book crowd. This movie will be a bomb at the box office.
Coppola is 85 years old and has lost touch with what audiences want.
New update:
Looks like it will be out in the US and Canada in Sep and Oct.