We are now just a month away from seeing Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis arrive in cinemas. The epic science fiction drama has been the subject of many headlines due to its reported soaring budget, inexplicable plot, and the fact that for a long time no one seemed to want to distribute the movie.
Now with the film’s latest trailer, Coppola is facing early criticisms of the movie head-on, with a montage of scathing reviews of some of his most renowned movies. You can check out the latest mind-bending trailer for Megalopolis for yourself above and see if you agree with the director’s previous statement that this could be “the best work I’ve ever had the privilege to preside over.”
Megalopolis (2024)
Megalopolis, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is a visionary 2024 film exploring the ambitious dream of reconstructing New York City into a utopia, following a devastating disaster. The narrative delves into the clash between the architect’s utopian vision and the political and personal turmoil that ensues. With a star-studded cast, the film examines themes of ambition, power, and the human spirit’s resilience against the backdrop of a futuristic metropolis.
Earlier in the year, Coppola released a statement in which he addressed the ongoing rumors that production on Megalopolishad been, to put it kindly, difficult. Coppola also addresses the idea that he has been working on the project for half his life and sold part of his expansive winery to finance the film.
“I wasn’t really working on this screenplay for 40 years as I often see written, but rather I was collecting notes and clippings for a scrapbook of things I found interesting for some future screenplay, or examples of political cartoons or different historical subjects.
“Ultimately, after a lot of time, I settled on the idea of a Roman epic. And then later, a Roman epic set in modern America, so I really only began writing this script, on and off, in the last dozen years or so. Also, as I have made many films of many different subjects and in many different styles, I hoped for a project later in life when I might better understand what my personal style was.”
Megalopolis Debuted at the Cannes Film Festival to Mixed Reviews
Coppola, who is best known for helming the cinematic classics The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now, continued to explain why he decided to brand the Megalopolis title with his name for the very first time ahead of its premiere in May at the Cannes Film Festival.
“Always respecting the original writer in films I made, and always insisting that their names appear above the title, such as it was with Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, or Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was only with The Rain People and The Conversation that it could have been permitted to have my own name as original writer on it; but then I was too insecure to present myself in such grandiosity.”
“Early on, I remember once I took 130 blank pages and put on a title page boldly announcing Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, and under that, All Roads Lead to Rome. I pretended it wasn’t totally blank, weighing it in my hands so I could imagine what one day it would feel like, and believe one day it could exist. Then later, once I had a draft, I must have rewritten it 300 times, hoping each rewrite would improve it, if only a half percent better.”
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Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis Screened to Studios Without Interest: ‘It’s So Not Good’
Megalopolis is getting the cold shoulder from major film studios that likely don’t understand the importance of Coppola’s art.
Starring an ensemble cast that includes Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, Talia Shire, Dustin Hoffman, and D. B. Sweeney, Megalopolis centers on an idealist who aims to rebuild a destroyed New York City-like metropolis into a utopia, while the mayor, Frank Cicero, has other plans.
The film’s premiere yielded some very mixed results, not unlike those shown in the excerpts at the beginning of Megalopolis‘ new trailer. Whether the movie will go down in history alongside The Godfather and Apocalypse Now is something that we will find out in the future. For now, all we can do is wait to see if Coppola’s huge financial gamble pays off.
