Megalopolis: First Look at Francis Ford Coppola’s Enigmatic New Film

Billie Melissa
·2 min read
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Megalopolis is upon us. We're just a few weeks away from Francis Ford Coppola's latest film hitting the Croisette in Cannes, and Vanity Fair has unveiled a first look at Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in character for the film.

Until now, the only information we've had is that Megalopolis will follow an architect who wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia after a devastating disaster.

Driver plays the architect, with Emmanuel starring as the socialite daughter of a corrupt mayor who is the nemesis of Driver's character. Giancarlo Esposito plays the mayor, and he is joined by fellow ensemble members Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Chloe Fineman and James Remar.

Vanity Fair revealed a statement from Coppola, which credits H.G. Wells's Things to Come as his first inspiration for Megalopolis, that the film "is about building the world of tomorrow".

Coppola also took the opportunity to dispel the rumors that Megalopolis was the product of four decades, saying instead that he "was collecting notes and clippings for a scrapbook of things [he] found interesting for some future screenplay, or examples of political cartoons or different historical subjects".

Vanity Fair also detailed a host of new information about the film, which has remained an enigma since Coppola declared that his $120 million epic was in production.

He told them that Megalopolis was a product of approximately 300 rewrites, crediting over 40 scholars, novelists, artists, filmmakers and poets for the inspiration and spoke in depth about the process of modernising his "Roman epic" tale for a contemporary New York City.

Audiences still do not have a definite date for when they will see Megalopolis, as the film currently only has French distribution, where it is eyeing a September 2024 release.

For now - until a studio picks up the distribution rights - the only place you can definitely see Megalopolis is at the Cannes Film Festival this May.