Megalopolis Will Stop the World

World stop. Photo: Francis Ford Coppola/YouTube

Francis Ford Coppola has been teasing up for decades on Megalopolis, his longtime passion project that is almost at the finish line. He told Vanity Fair he first grew inspiration for the film as a child when he saw H.G. Wells’s Things to Come. Coppola further explains that he wasn’t diligently working on this project for all of these years but instead collected inspiration, a.k.a. thought about the Roman Empire a lot, and gathered footage of New York City in the early 2000s, including “heartbreaking images” of September 11.

Coppola financed the $120 million budget himself, selling part of his vineyard, only growing anticipation for the movie. Megalopolis premiered at Cannes on May 17, competing for the Palme d’Or against Kinds of Kindness; Oh, Canada; and more (Sean Baker’s Anora ultimately won the prize). Below, everything we know about the movie, including the new trailer (which is essentially the same as the old trailer, just without the fake critic quotes).

Who are the citizens of Megalopolis?

Adam Driver stars as Cesar, an architect who plans to rebuild the city to a sustainable utopia after an accident destroys most of Megalopolis. Opposing him is Giancarlo Esposito’s Frank Cicero, who is the mayor and doesn’t want to change a thing. In between both of them is Julia Cicero, played by Nathalie Emmanuel, who’s Frank’s daughter and Cesar’s love interest. The rest of the cast is made up of Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, D. B. Sweeney, James Remar, Chloe Fineman, plus Coppola’s sister Talia Shire, and her son Jason Schwartzman.

Oh, one tiny major detail we forgot: Cesar can freeze time.

Okay, what do you mean he can freeze time?

In the new trailer released on September 5, Cesar (Driver) seems to almost fall to his death off of a building until he yells, “Time stop!,” which is oddly reminiscent of a technique used when losing a playground game. Cesar shakes as he is frozen in midair and falls back into a standing position. Carry on.

Instead of opening with a montage of dubious critic quotes, we get a short clip of Cesar’s face as he warns, “Don’t let the now destroy the forever.” As far as we can tell, the rest of the trailer is the same as the deleted one from last month. The two-minute preview focuses in on Cesar as a singular genius. It doesn’t seem like anyone else has superhuman powers, and he’s got a plan to make a city full of wonder. Cue the giant living statues that are dramatically falling down in the rain. Coppola’s Roman influence peeks through with gladiator races, strappy sandals, and plenty of robes as Cesar contemplates what it means to create a true utopia. Try making it pedestrian-friendly.

What happened to that other trailer?

A now-removed August 21 trailer opened with negative reviews from Coppola’s most iconic films, suggesting to take what you may have heard coming out of Cannes with a grain of salt — after all, people have hated his films before. “True genius is often misunderstood,” a narrator said, as negative reviews of Coppola’s past work flashed onscreen. But there was one small problem. As Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri pointed out, the trailer used fake quotes from real movie critics. Lionsgate later issued an apology, recalled the trailer, and reportedly cut ties with the marketing consultant who worked on it. All in all, the entire situation feels avoidable. Too bad Cesar can only freeze time, not turn it back.

When does it come out?

Lionsgate will release the film on September 27 in theaters and Imax, IndieWire reported on June 17. No word yet on how Lionsgate will enlist hundreds of fourth-wall-breaking, in-audience interlocutors to interview Driver’s onscreen character.