Ahead of its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later this month, 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 resumes as normal.
An intriguing and visually stunning clip, but it doesn't really give us much to go on!
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.
"An accident destroys a New York City-like metropolis already in decay. Caesar, an idealist, aims to rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia, while the venal mayor, Frank Cicero, has other plans. Coming between the opposing men and their visions is Frank’s socialite daughter, Julia. Tired of the attention and power she was born with, Julia searches for her life’s meaning."
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.