Megalopolis (2024)

About

Megalopolis is a science fiction drama written, directed, and financed by American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who has been developing the concept since 1983, and has invested $120 million of his own money to make the film. The film is set in a decaying metropolis called New Rome, where Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) butts heads with corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) as he attempts to revamp the city into a sustainable utopia. The film received mixed reviews from critics after its first screening at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, sparking discussions and memes.

Origin

Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis has been in development since 1983 and was conceived by Coppola in 1977. After multiple delays and cancellations in the following decades, Coppola invested $120 million of his own money to jumpstart the film's production in 2019. Filming took place between November 2022 and March 2023.

Francis Ford Coppola released a "first look" and a teaser trailer for the film on his own YouTube^[1][2] channel on May 4th and May 14th, 2024 (seen below).

The film follows Cesar Catilina, an ambitious architect played by Adam Driver, as he attempts to revitalize the decaying city of New Rome, which is headed by the corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito.

Spread

The "first look" trailer was shared to Reddit's /r/movies on May 4th, 2024, where it gathered over 4,000 upvotes.^[7]

Discussions about Megalopolis spread online in the weeks leading up to its debut at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, with a particular focus being drawn to Coppola's supposedly erratic filmmaking practices. On May 14th, 2024 an excerpt from an article in The Guardian made the rounds on X,^[3] with a crew member recanting Coppola's insistence on using physical effects for a scene that could have been completed much quicker in post.

On May 16th, 2024, the film premiered at the 77th Film Festival in Cannes, where it was received with a 7-minute standing ovation as well as some booing.^[4]

Memes about the film began making the rounds online soon after the film's release on May 16th, with X^[5] user @collateral2004 joking about a segment in the film where a person breaks the fourth wall by speaking to Driver's on-screen character from the movie theater where the film is being screened (seen below, left).

Also on May 16th, the X^[6] account @LeCinephiles posted a Welcome Back meme comparing Megalopolis to Babylon (2022), a film that had also received mixed reviews from critics. The post gathered over 9,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

False Quotes Trailer Controversy

On August 21st, 2024, Lionsgate posted a trailer for Megalopolis that opened with quotes from movie critics panning some of Coppola's older classic films, including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. It was quickly discovered that the quotes were not genuine, and Lionsgate pulled the trailer. It is suspected the fake quotes were generated by ChatGPT.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References