In his long career Francis Ford Coppola has created masterpieces (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather And The Godfather Part II, The Conversation)Cult classic (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Outsiders)and curious about what is there (The Godfather Part III, Peggy Sue got married). Which will Megalopolis Be? While the world waits to see it the film he’s had in his head for decadesthe writer and director gives fans a few crumbs to go on.
In a statement to Vanity FairAlong with a first image, which you can see below in the magazine’s X feature, Coppola – who invested $120 million of his own money in the project and just turned 85 – gave sci-fi fans some hope by Adam Driver’s character noted has the “power to stop time.” That’s Driver, who plays an “idealistic architect and artist who plans to rebuild a city that is in ruins.” game of ThronesThe photo features Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays the daughter of the city’s corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) and falls in love with Driver’s character.
So we have a dystopian city and a character who can “stop time” (literally or metaphorically?), as well as a cast that also includes Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Jason Schwartzman, etc. belong to others. In his statement to Vanity Fair, Coppola outlined the influences that sustained him throughout the 40 years he dreamed of Megalopolisincluding the science fiction classic from 1936 Future thingsadapted by HG Wells himself from his book The shape of things to come. “[It’s about building the world of tomorrow, and has always been with me, first as the ‘boy scientist’ I was and later as a filmmaker,” Coppola told the magazine.
He also refers to his movie as “a Roman epic set in modern America,” tying in both ancient history and more recent New York City moments, as wide-ranging as September 11 and “the antics of Studio 54.” He did that “so that everything in my story would be true and did happen either in modern New York or in ancient Rome. To that I added everything I had ever read or learned about.”
While we wonder what Megalopolis will be, here’s what Coppola said he hopes audiences will take away from it: “It’s my dream that Megalopolis will become a New Year’s Eve perennial favorite, with audiences discussing afterwards not their new diets or resolutions not to smoke, but rather this simple question: ‘Is the society in which we live the only one available to us?’”
Megalopolis will debut at the Cannes Film Festival next month; hopefully it’ll then make its way stateside for theaters and streaming.
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