Given the amount of financial investment (reportedly over $100M) and decades of time that Francis Ford Coppola has put into Megalopolis, you’ll forgive him a bit of hyperbole when promoting the sci-fi drama’s first trailer, released via his own YouTube channel…
“Our new film ‘Megalopolis’ is the best work I’ve ever had the privilege to preside over,” the director said in a statement.
That’s a lot coming from the filmmaker behind Apocalypse Now and The Godfather. Coppola will be at Cannes for the world premiere of Megalopolis in just a few days, and the anticipation is building.
The new trailer begins by asking about the fall of empires, drawing parallels between the collapse of Rome with a modern city unable to solve its social unrest. Coppola wrote and directed the film which he has been developing since 1981. This is his first completed feature since the experimental Twixt back in 2011.
Oscar-nominee Adam Driver leads a starry cast, joined by Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, Talia Shire, Dustin Hoffman, and D. B. Sweeney.
Here’s the 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.
If Megalopolis is a hit at Cannes, expect it land domestic distribution quickly.
