Summary

  • Megalopolis is a wild, visionary love story with Adam Driver as Caesar, resembling Francis Ford Coppola's ideals.
  • The film explores competing ideologies in rebuilding New York as a utopia post-disaster, led by a visionary architect.
  • Francis Ford Coppola's long-awaited dream project, Megalopolis, features an all-star cast and is set for an IMAX release in Fall 2024.

As one of the stars of Francis Ford Coppola's anticipated epic Megalopolis, Adam Driver knows the details surrounding the mysterious sci-fi film. But don't expect him to give anything away, as his description of the film may lead to more confusion than clarity. During an interview with The Face, Driver was asked what information he could share about Megalopolis. He described the film as "kind of undefinable" but added that the description would make sense after viewing the movie.

"It's kind of undefinable, which feels very general until you watch the movie. Then my answer will be perfect. There's not a lot of precedent for it and it's wild on a big scale, which is what's really unique about it,"

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Megalopolis is set in New York, where a woman, Julia Cicero, is divided between loyalties to her father, Frank, who has a classical view of society, and her architect lover, Caesar, who is more progressive and ready for the future. Caesar wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster. Driver stars as Caesar, a character he describes as "visionary" and likens to Megalopolis' iconic filmmaker.

"He's [Caesar] a visionary. He's very much Francis [Ford Coppola], in a way, where he's investigated every way of how people can do something and is trying not to get stuck on the right answer. That's an idea that's moving to me — and one that reflects Francis."

Francis Ford Coppola Says Megalopolis is a "Love Story"

Adam Driver and the official Megalopolis title.
Sony Pictures Releasing

Decades in the making, Megalopolis is Coppola's dream project and is financed by the filmmaker, who sold a portion of his famed winery to get it on the screen. Coppola has been working on the project, which he wrote, since the 1980s. Filming for Megalopolis finally commenced in the Fall of 2022. During an interview with GQ that year, Coppola discussed the film's plot, sharing:

"It's a love story. A woman is divided between loyalties to two men. But not only two men. Each man comes with a philosophical principle. One is her father who raised her, who taught her Latin on his lap and is devoted to a much more classical view of society, the Marcus Aurelius kind of view. The other one, who is the lover, is the enemy of the father but is dedicated to a much more progressive 'Let's leap into the future, let's leap over all of this garbage that has contaminated humanity for 10,000 years. Let's find what we really are, which are an enlightened, friendly, joyous species."

Along with Driver, Coppola has assembled an impressive all-star cast that includes Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Shia LaBeouf, Talia Shire, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, James Remar, Chloe Fineman, Madeleine Gardella, Isabelle Kusman, D. B. Sweeney, Bailey Ives, Dustin Hoffman, and Giancarlo Esposito.

It's been well over a decade since Coppola's last feature-length project, Twixt, so fans of the famed The Godfather director have been waiting for his next outing.

Megalopolis is scheduled for release in IMAX in Fall 2024.

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