Look, if you made The Godfather and The Godfather Part II and The Conversation and Apocalypse Now and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, you should be allowed to make (in the immortal words of Blank Check) whatever passion project you want. Francis Ford Coppola is finally making his passion project.
Coppola first conceived of Megalopolis in the 1970s, but long story short (Vanity Fair has a short story long history of the project), he reportedly spent $120 million of his own money to finance the film. Coppola also put together an all-star cast, including Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, Grace VanderWaal, Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter, and Dustin Hoffman.
Megalopolis still doesn’t have distribution, but a teaser trailer was released ahead of the film’s Cannes Film Festival premiere, and this thing looks wild. “Wild” in the best, work-of-staggering-genius way possible. Here are some of the craziest (complimentary) moments, from crazy to most crazy:
2. This isn’t in the trailer, per se, but Aubrey Plaza’s character is named Wow Platinum. As in, “Wow, her name is Wow Platinum.”
1. The dissolve from Adam Driver’s face into the title card
Let Coppola cook. Here’s the official plot 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.
Megalopolis premieres at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 16. It does not have a theatrical release date… yet?