Culture news Pure madness! Megalopolis cost $120 million and the latest trailer confirms it. Coppola’s sci-fi film is coming to theaters in 2024
Nearly $120 million is what it took for Francis Ford Coppola’s new blockbuster with multiple styles to be released on September 25!
Megalopolis, an important project for Coppola
At the end of the month Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) is back in force with Megalopolis. It is in a futuristic America that we follow the story of Caesar Catilina, an architect whose mission is to make his city a utopia on the model of Rome under Julius Caesar.
A new trailer published on the channel of Lionsgate Films (its distributor) reveals more images of the feature film, and it promises to be grandiose! Already, because its mega-budget allows Coppola to afford the perfect casting. We will therefore find, among others, Adam Driver in the role of Cesare Catilina, Giancarlo Esposito as the mayor of the city and Nathalie Emmanuel in the role of Julia Cicero, daughter of the mayor and lover of Cesare Catilina. Shia Labeouf will also be there since he will play Clodio Pulcher, the lord of the city.
An aesthetic like no other
On the occasion of the last Cannes festival, the viewing of Megalopolis divided the audience. What appears to some as a masterpiece, seems to others as an overdose of visual effects. Thus The Guardian gives it a score of 2 out of 5 and fears that such complexity in the form of the work would spoil the whole.
It is, simultaneously, hyperactive and empty of life, cluttered by terrible acting and uninteresting special effects work that illustrates neither an analogous reality nor a radical reinvention of existence. – The Guardian
The new trailer, in fact, presents a surprising mix of styles.. We see typical settings from science fiction universes with the use of colored neon lights, which recalls scenes from Matrix or even Vertigo. But also more imperial scenes with gilding and imposing costumes. In any case, Megalopolis will not be a film like the others.
A project dating back to the 1980s
Coppola has been maturing this project since the 1980s.. He draws his inspiration from the Catiline conspiracy, a political coup d’état that took place in Rome in 63 BC. A subject that was initially unfamiliar to him:
I have made a lot of films in extremely diverse styles because I like to shoot projects whose genre or codes I do not master. And when you do not master them, it is the film that takes care of telling you how to do it. And that is very stimulating. – Francis Ford Coppola
It was after many years and doubts in 2007 regarding the financing of the film that the director was proud to announce his blockbuster. Filming took place over a year, primarily at Trilith Studio in Georgia.