While he will be this week at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where he will present “Megalopolis” in competition, Francis Ford Coppola unveils the trailer for his passion project, with Adam Driver in the lead role.
It is one of the cinema events of the year 2024 and undoubtedly the most anticipated return of the 77th Cannes Film Festival: the comeback of Francis Ford Coppola. The director of The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and Secret Conversation will present, this Thursday, May 16, 2024, his new film, Megalopolis. A passion project that the filmmaker has been working on for many years.
After revealing a first image for Vanity Fair with Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel, then an extract that set the internet on fire, the filmmaker shared the official trailer for the film on his networks.
A “fable” in a futuristic New York
The plot of Megalopolis takes place in a futuristic New York, renamed New Rome. The change in the city provokes a conflict between César Catilina (Adam Driver), a genius artist who wishes to make the megalopolis a utopia, and his opponent, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), very attached to regressive policies.
Francis Ford Coppola sold part of his wine estate to finance his film himself, whose budget was $120 million. In the columns of Vanity Fairthe director hopes that his project will excite the crowds: “I dream that Megalopolis becomes a classic end-of-year film that we watch as a family, and that spectators then no longer discuss their good resolutions, go on a new diet or quit smoking, but rather ask themselves this simple question : ‘Is our model of society really the only one available to us?‘”
The film’s cast also includes Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter, Talia Shire and Jason Schwartzman.
Coppola’s last participation in the Cannes Competition dates back to 1979. That is to say the year of his second Palme d’Or, obtained thanks to Apocalypse Now. 45 years later, Francis Ford Coppola could therefore be the first filmmaker to achieve the hat trick on the Croisette.
In France, Megalopolis is distributed by Le Pacte, but its release date remains unknown.
It will be presented in competition on Thursday May 16 at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.