Francis Ford Coppola's Megaloplis: A Fable

[tehpope]

Is the society in which we live the only one available to us?

First look clip:

Teaser:

Synopsis (From Wikipedia):

An accident destroys a decaying New York City-like metropolis. Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect with the power to control time, aims to rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia, while his opposition, corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero, remains committed to a regressive status quo. Torn between them is Franklyn's socialite daughter, Julia, who, tired of the influence she inherited, searches for her life's meaning.

 

[Tablet County]

Adam Driver looking like some bizarre mix of Harrison Ford Alan Rickman and Yandere Dev.

 

[Dysnomia]

Adam Driver looking like some bizarre mix of Harrison Ford Alan Rickman and Yandere Dev.

I just don't understand his face. Every time I look at it I'm confused. Not in a Cumberbatch way. But something similar. What a bizarre looking person. Oh well. Guess it works for him.

What's this movie about anyway? Some surreal apocalypse?

 

[tehpope]

What's this movie about anyway? Some surreal apocalypse?

An accident destroys a decaying New York City-like metropolis. Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect with the power to control time, aims to rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia, while his opposition, corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero, remains committed to a regressive status quo. Torn between them is Franklyn's socialite daughter, Julia, who, tired of the influence she inherited, searches for her life's meaning.

 

[The Cunting Death]

I respect the fact Coppola financed the film completely independently through the sale of his wine, but he also hasn't made a watchable film in 30+ years so I'm extremely hesitant.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

the premise sounds fucking stupid, but I really don't know what to make of that second trailer. what's with all the roman shit? it looks like a schizophrenic clusterfuck. also, why does yelling "TIME STOP" keep him from falling, but allow him to continue standing on the ledge normally? is he disabling gravity or not? hopefully this is the kind of train wreck that's entertaining to watch.

A longtime passion project for Coppola, who first conceived the idea for the film in 1977 and actively started developing it in 1983, Megalopolis underwent significant delays and numerous cancellations over the years. Coppola revived the project in 2019 by spending $120 million of his own money on the film.

Yandere Dev

so this is what he's been working on all this time...

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

A passion project. Oof.

 

[tehpope]

what's with all the roman shit?

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/megalopolis-first-look-francis-ford-coppola-rewrote-script-300-times-1235987299/

“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.”

Last September, Coppola elaborated on how Rome inspired “Megalopolis,” writing on Instagram, “How often do I think of Ancient Rome? Quite a lot, as the Roman Republic served as the example for my country America and its institutions, and was the inspiration for my upcoming film ‘Megalopolis.’”

Coppola continued, “My fascination with the Roman Republic is based on the struggle between the political parties during which the interest of the Republic yielded to the ambitions of a few powerful men who espoused the aims of political parties to establish their own fortunes and authority by relying upon armed forces to achieve those ends, dealing the final blow to a constitution already tottering to its fall.”

https://archive.is/imsqO

Among his touchstones was an attempted coup from 63 BC. At that point, ancient Rome was in the throes of crisis, with its trade economy stalling, an ongoing struggle to hold together its vast republic, and debt for rich and poor alike skyrocketing. An insurrectionist named Catiline plotted to assassinate a number of political leaders and spark a dozen fires around the city, destabilizing it to the point of anarchy. After chaos, Catiline would build a new society, erasing all debts from the previous one. But his scheme was exposed and thwarted by the Roman statesman and orator Cicero.

“I considered many possibilities, becoming interested in an incident known as ‘The Catiline Conspiracy,’” Coppola says, explaining that “modern America was the historical counterpart of ancient Rome and that the Catiline Conspiracy, as told by historian Sallust, could be set in modern America, just as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness [originally set in the late 1800s amid European colonial rule in Africa] was set in the Vietnam War in Apocalypse Now.”

His next step was to remake some of those figures from history into fictional versions of modern civic leaders. “I began with the essence of a plot: Perhaps an evil patrician (Catiline) plotted to overthrow the republic, but was thwarted by Cicero, the consul. I renamed Catiline to Cesar as suggested by Mary Beard, because in Suetonius’s version young Julius Caesar was very much in cahoots with Catiline, and Cesar would be more familiar to audiences than Sergius (which was historical Catiline’s name).”

Coppola also decided to take a revisionist view of this age-old accepted history. “I wondered whether the traditional portrayal of Catiline as ‘evil’ and Cicero as ‘good’ was necessarily true,” the director says. “In history, Catiline lost and was killed and Cicero survived. But since the survivor tells the story, I wondered, what if what Catiline had in mind for his new society was a realignment of those in power, and could it have even been ‘visionary’ and ‘good,’ while Cicero perhaps could have been ‘reactionary’ and ‘bad.’”

The director then transposed this plot from antiquity to the near-present day. “The story would take place in a somewhat stylized New York City, portrayed as the center of the power of the world, and Cicero would be the mayor during a time of great financial upheaval, such as the financial crisis under former Mayor Dinkins [who led the city from 1990 to 1993.] Cesar, in turn, would be a master builder, a great architect, designer, and scientist combining elements of Robert Moses, as portrayed in the brilliant biography The Power Broker, with architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel Geddes, or Walter Gropius.”

As the film nears its Cannes debut, Coppola expresses lofty hopes for its future: “It’s my dream that Megalopolis will become a New Year’s Eve perennial favorite, with audiences discussing afterwards not their new diets or resolutions not to smoke, but rather this simple question: ‘Is the society in which we live the only one available to us?’”

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Didn't he show it off to a bunch of distributors and they all passed on it?

I remember hearing some Hollywood big wig who saw it supposedly said it would ruin his entire legacy if it ever saw the light of day.

 

[tehpope]

@xXx: State of the Union

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/megalopolis-francis-ford-coppola-challenges-distribution-1235867556/

 

[Cnut]

Reminds me of the big Wachoskis flop, and the big Peter Jackson flop, neither of which I nor anyone I knew saw or remember the titles of.

 

[MrTroll]

Selling off your $500 million wine business to finance an instant flop like this is possibly the most baller move ever made in the history of film making. I hope he has enough left over to make The Zombie Godfather with an AI Marlon Brando.

 

[Dean Pentel]

I wonder if it'll be like the Star Wars prequels where because it's his money/company and therefore nobody can tell him no, it'll end up fucking retarded.

 

[tehpope]

Reminds me of the big Wachoskis flop, and the big Peter Jackson flop, neither of which I nor anyone I knew saw or remember the titles of.

Jupiter Ascending, Mortal Engines (which he only produced) or The Lovely Bones (the film he did before the hobbit trilogy).

 

[The Ugly One]

How often do I think of Ancient Rome? Quite a lot

Movie is worth it just to get this quote out of him.

 

[Mussolini’s Merkin]

This is definitely going to be a trainwreck. Passion project, development hell, multiple rewrites. There's simply no way this can end well.
No doubt it will show up on KFMN and everyone can have a good chuckle.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

This is going to be faggots new "It takes a high IQ to appreciate it" movie, isn't it?

 

[TheHarbinger]

Didn't he show it off to a bunch of distributors and they all passed on it?

I remember hearing some Hollywood big wig who saw it supposedly said it would ruin his entire legacy if it ever saw the light of day.

People begged him not to make Godfather III over and over because the script was abysmal. When it got into production and Robert Duvall was absent and then Coppola's daughter was thrown into the film last minute it was already a horrendous mess. Everyone knew it would be a joke but it was too far gone to stop by the time they were shooting helicopter machine gun scenes and opera assassinations.

But the movie did make money because it was part of the Godfather series. And it was a surefire money maker at the box office even if it received negative reviews.. And Coppola was able to finance his wine business with that and Bram Stoker's Dracula being box office hits.

Selling off your $500 million wine business to finance an instant flop like this is possibly the most baller move ever made in the history of film making.

Baller? Nice nigger vocabulary. And Coppola once was nearly bankrupt from his wine business and had to make Godfather III to bail him out. Now he's destroying his successful wine business to make a guaranteed dumpster fire of a movie. He's an 85-year-old with no one protecting him from making mistakes.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/megalopolis-first-look-francis-ford-coppola-rewrote-script-300-times-1235987299/

another straight white man falls victim to the siren song of SPQR. smh my head.

Baller? Nice nigger vocabulary.

lol shut up fag. bashing somebody's vernacular for not being Culturally Pure enough is a very nigger thing to do. so it appears that you, sir, are the true nigger after all.

 

[Fathomless Eminence]

>Corrupt mayor Franklyn Cicero

What a historically illiterate faggot. This calinigger is like 90 and using his final years to shit on a man infinitely better than himself.

What I am more afraid of is lest, being ignorant of the true path to glory, you, should think it glorious for you to have more power by yourself than all the rest of the people put together, and lest you should prefer being feared by your fellow-citizens to being loved by them. And if you do think so, you are ignorant of the road to glory. For a citizen to be dear to his fellow-citizens, to deserve well of the republic, to be praised, to be respected, to be loved, is glorious; but to be feared, and to be an object of hatred, is odious, detestable; and moreover, pregnant with weakness and decay.

Yeah this Cicero sounds like he was such a regressive, corrupt guy. Go fuck yourself you elephant eared spaghetti nigger.