Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis First Look: Adam Driver Stops Time

Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in “Megalopolis” by Francis Ford Coppola

American Zoetrope/Mihai Malaimare

Adam Driver is an architect who can control time in the first clip from Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming self-financed film, Megalopolis.

In the more than two-minute video, the pilot’s Cesar Catilina walks toward the edge of a skyscraper, apparently considering jumping. As he is about to leave the building completely, he shouts “Time stops” and the cars below him stop at his command, and he leans back onto a stable base.

The film, which will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, is a Roman epic set in an imagined modern America, according to its description.

“The city of New Rome must change, sparking a conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to launch into a utopian and idealistic future, and his opponent, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo. perpetuate greed, special interests and partisan warfare,” the logline reads. “Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Caesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.”

Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Jason Schwartzman, Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, DB Sweeney and Dustin Hoffman complete the cast of the director’s self-financed film.

Coppola began to write Megalopolis in 1983, and the film reportedly cost $120 million, financed in part by the sale of a significant portion of the director’s wine empire. He held a screening of the project in late March for potential buyers, attended by Universal’s Donna Langley, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Sony’s Tom Rothman.

However, more than a month later, the film is still seeking distribution, as several attendees at the screening said. The Hollywood Reporter that Megalopolis will face an uphill battle. One distributor said, “There’s just no way to position this film,” while another noted that while “everyone supports” the director, “there’s also the business side of things “.

One studio executive even said, “It’s really not good and it was so sad to watch.” Anyone who puts P&A (print and advertising) behind it, you’re going to lose money.

However, all answers to Megalopolis were negative. The founder of a specialty label shared, “I loved it immensely,” adding that it’s a “very big film” that “has real life.” …How do you define commercial? You watch a movie like Blade runner, and it became much more commercial than opening weekend.