The initial reaction to the first Megalopolis trailer was thinking that it appears to be something along the lines of Inception meets the art deco landscape of everything from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead to, more recently, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things.
Adam Driver is standing at the edge of towering skyscraper, and right as he’s about to fall off, he appears to stop time, suspended in mid air, before slowly regaining himself back on the ledge.
Here is the description for the film online: An accident destroys a New York City-like metropolis already in decay. Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect with the power to control time, aims to rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia, while his opposition, corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero, remains committed to a regressive status quo. Coming between the opposing men and their visions is Franklyn’s socialite daughter, Julia. Tired of the attention and power she was born with, Julia searches for her life’s meaning.
Interesting.
Firstly, Francis Ford Coppola’s inclusion on the Mt. Olympus of greatest filmmakers of all time is hard to be argued against, as The Godfather, The Godfather part II, and Apocalypse Now, are rightfully regarded as some of the best films ever made, ever. But Coppola hasn’t made anything in several years, and this latest effort, which is generating warranted buzz – not least because of its star studded cast: Adam Driver, Shia LeBouf, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, and many more – but also because Coppola has written, directed, and financed the film entirely out of his own pocket. And at 85 years old, blowing such a significant amount of cash on, what could potentially be, his very last project, clearly indicates the level of passion embedded within this project (and in case you didn’t know, Jason Schwartzman’s mother is Talia Shire, aka Connie Corleone from The Godfather. Does that make Schwartzman just another nepo-baby? Sigh. Oh, well).
The film has been scheduled for production over several years already, with Coppola first conceiving the project back in 1977, but due to endless delays and cancellations, Coppola finally resurrected the project in 2019 by dropping AED 440 million of his own money. Filming commenced in November 2022 and concluded in March 2023, and it marks the director’s first project since 2011’s Twixt, which marks the longest gap between films in his long, creative history.
The film will premiere in competition at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2024.
Here’s to hoping that we get one more Apocalypse Now from one of the best to ever do it.
Oh, and if you’re not following Francis on Instagram, do yourself a favour and get on it. He’s very interactive with comments, and he posts some great BTS stuff and anecdotes from his classic films. It’s truly delightful.
