Buzz continues to develop for Megalopolis, the decades-in-the-making film from director Francis Ford Coppola. The film, which the 85-year-old director funded himself, has but to discover a U.S. distributor. With first-look pictures launched earlier this week, in addition to at this time’s trailer, its fortunes may quickly change: in line with Coppola, the $120 million epic might be supplied as much as consumers on the Cannes Film Festival, the place it should formally premiere in competitors on May 16.
The film boasts an unlimited forged that features Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, and Laurence Fishburne. What it’s about is way more durable to quantify: writing to Vanity Fair, the director cited H.G. Wells, the September 11 assaults, and a 63 BC battle between Roman politician Cicero and an insurrectionist named Catiline.
“The story would take place in a somewhat stylized New York City, portrayed as the center of the power of the world, and Cicero would be the mayor during a time of great financial upheaval, such as the financial crisis under former Mayor Dinkins,” the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now wrote to clarify the 40-year evolution of his Megalopolis script.
“Cesar, in turn, would be a master builder, a great architect, designer, and scientist combining elements of Robert Moses, as portrayed in the brilliant biography The Power Broker, with architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel Geddes, or Walter Gropius.”
We don’t see any of that within the clip, which exhibits a black-clad Driver stepping off the sting of a domed skyscraper after which seemingly stopping time. Those who attended an April screening in Los Angeles might need extra perception into how the teaser may play into the ultimate movie, through which Driver’s character—an architect intent on rebuilding a ruined metropolis—goes up towards a corrupt mayor (Esposito) who prefers the established order.