Summary

• The first full trailer for Megalopolis has finally been revealed, along with a recently released clip. In his YouTube description for the trailer, Coppola called it his "best work."
• Coppola discussed his decision to put his name on Megalopolis title, reviewing process and history behind the screenplay creation.
• Megalopolis will compete at Cannes Film Festival, and explores clashes between visions in a futuristic metropolis.

After years of development and months of reports about behind-the-scenes drama, we finally have our first official trailer for Megalopolis, the epic science fiction drama from acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola. Released by Francis Ford Coppola himself online, the trailer shows more than just still images and a previously released clip. It's a full preview of the massive spectacle that Coppola has self-financed and will bring to IMAX theaters if he dies trying. Watch it above. In the YouTube description, Coppola writes, "Our new film Megalopolis is the best work I've ever had the privilege to preside over."

Just 11 days ago, Le Pacte, the studio that has acquired Megalopolis for distribution in at least France, released the first clip we've seen of the long-gestating film. The clip shows Adam Driver at the top of a skyscraper, seemingly ready to jump, until we realize he has the ability to... freeze time? Watch the two-minute clip below.

Additionally, Vanity Fair released images on April 30 that practically teases this new clip, with Adam Driver standing with Nathalie Emmanuel atop one of the many skyscrapers that make up this metropolis. Alongside this first look, Coppola has now released a statement in which he addresses the ongoing rumors that production on Megalopolis has been, to put it kindly, difficult. Coppola also addresses the idea that he has been working on the project for half his life and sold part of his expansive winery to finance the film.

“I wasn’t really working on this screenplay for 40 years as I often see written, but rather I was collecting notes and clippings for a scrapbook of things I found interesting for some future screenplay, or examples of political cartoons or different historical subjects.

"Ultimately, after a lot of time, I settled on the idea of a Roman epic. And then later, a Roman epic set in modern America, so I really only began writing this script, on and off, in the last dozen years or so. Also, as I have made many films of many different subjects and in many different styles, I hoped for a project later in life when I might better understand what my personal style was.”

You can check out the new image from Megalopolis below.

Megalopolis Will Debut at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May

In his statement, Coppola, who is best known for helming the cinematic classics The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now revealed why he decided to brand the Megalopolis title with his name for the very first time.

“Always respecting the original writer in films I made, and always insisting that their names appear above the title, such as it was with Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, or Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was only with The Rain People and The Conversation that it could have been permitted to have my own name as original writer on it; but then I was too insecure to present myself in such grandiosity.”

“Early on, I remember once I took 130 blank pages and put on a title page boldly announcing Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, and under that, All Roads Lead to Rome. I pretended it wasn’t totally blank, weighing it in my hands so I could imagine what one day it would feel like, and believe one day it could exist. Then later, once I had a draft, I must have rewritten it 300 times, hoping each rewrite would improve it, if only a half percent better.”

Starring an ensemble cast that includes Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, Talia Shire, Dustin Hoffman, and D. B. Sweeney, Megalopolis centers on an idealist who aims to rebuild a destroyed New York City-like metropolis into a utopia, while the mayor, Frank Cicero, has other plans.

Megalopolis has been selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2024, and has reportedly now found a distributor in the French film company, Le Pacte.