Ahead of the movie's world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, the first trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's sci-fi passion project, Megalopolis, has been released online.
Really more of a scene preview than a proper teaser, the footage sees Adam Driver's character, Caesar, step out on to the ledge of a building and walk precariously towards the edge. Caesar then begins to topple forward, but before he falls, he yells "time stop," and freezes in place. After a few moments, he snaps his fingers and the world around him returns to normal.
Coppola shared the clip on Instagram, with a sad addendum.
"Megalopolis has always been a film dedicated to my dear wife Eleanor. I really had hoped to celebrate her birthday together this May 4th. But sadly that was not to be, so let me share with everyone a gift on her behalf."
Plot details are still pretty vague (though an early version of the script did the rounds last year), but we do know that Megalopolis will be a sci-fi drama about "a woman divided between loyalties to her father, who has a classical view of society, and her lover, who is more progressive and ready for the future."
"Ultimately, after a lot of time, I settled on the idea of a Roman epic," Coppola explains. "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."
Though the movie has not been screened for critics, the reactions from an early insider screening were divisive. One viewer described the film as "unflinching in how batshit it is," noting that it has "zero commercial prospects," while another called it a mix of "Ayn Rand, Metropolis, and Caligula."
However, a more positive verdict stated: "Coppola's new film is crackling with ideas that fuse the past with the future, with an epic and highly visual fable that plays perfectly on an IMAX screen. He covers complex themes in a remarkably brief two hours and 13 minutes, not including credits."
Check out the teaser at the link below, and let us know what you think in the comments section.
“The destruction of a New York City-like metropolis after an accident brings clashing visions of the future. On one side is an ambitious architectural idealist Cesar (Adam Driver). On the other is his sworn enemy, city Mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). The debate becomes whether to embrace the future and build a utopia with renewable materials, or take a business-as-usual rebuild strategy, replete with corruption and power brokering. In between their struggle is the mayor’s socialite daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), a restless young woman who grew up around power and is looking for meaning in her life.”
Megalopolis also stars Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, Talia Shire, Dustin Hoffman, and D.B. Sweeney.