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Francis Ford Coppola, the legendary 84-year-old director of films such as The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, debuted the final cut of his new film Megalopolis for the first time.
The screening was held at the Universal CityWalk IMAX Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 28. In attendance were all the major studios (who will be bidding for the rights to distribute the film) and Hollywood stars such as Al Pacino, Nicolas Cage, Spike Jonze, Darren Aronofsky, Roger Corman, Andy Garcia, Anjelica Huston, Jon Favreau, and more.
Megalopolis, which Coppola first began writing in the 1980s, has been in development for decades.
The film represents a massive creative and financial gamble for Coppola, as he previously stated that he spent $120 million of his own money on the project, in addition to selling off a “significant piece of his wine empire” to produce the project.
And based on the word on the street following Megalopolis‘ first screening, it would appear that Coppola’s gamble paid off.
A writer for Deadline — who described the film as being “crackling with ideas that fuse the past with the future, with an epic and highly visual fable that plays perfectly on an IMAX screen” — was in attendance at the screening and provided the following description of Coppola’s film:
“An accident causes the destruction of a New York City-like metropolis that is decaying anyway brings clashing visions of the future. On one side is an ambitious architectural idealist Cesar (Adam Driver). On the other is his sworn enemy, city Mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito).”
“The debate becomes whether to embrace the future and build a utopia with renewable materials, or take a business-as-usual rebuild strategy, replete with corruption and power brokering. In between their struggle is the mayor’s socialite daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), a restless young woman who grew up around power and is looking for meaning in her life.”
World of Reel provided another description of the project, saying that it’s avant-garde, startling, experimental, and “not like any movie that’s out there.”
“In Megalopolis, for which Laurence Fishburne provides narration, Adam Driver plays Caesar, a tortured visionary fighting to rebuild his city into a utopia after disaster strikes. It’s also a love affair between Caesar and Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), the daughter of his rival and opponent, and the battle for her heart. It’s Romeo and Juliet, a Shakespearean rivalry between two families. The main villain is portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito as the city mayor opposing Caesar’s vision. Aubrey Plaza plays a rival love interest.”
In addition to Driver in the lead role and Esposito as the villain, Megalopolis also stars Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, D.B., Sweeney, Jon Voight, Jason Schwartzman, Baily Ives, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace Vanderwaal and James Remar.
At this time, the film does not have an official release date as it does not have a studio. It is set to release in late 2024, however.