Adam Driver will be next seen headlining Francis Ford Coppola’s epic sci-fi dream project Megalopolis. The film sees an ensemble cast that includes Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, and more. Coppola recently released a teaser for the film which sees Driver stop time with a watch as he stands atop a building overlooking New York.
Coppola’s magnum opus has been in the making since the ‘80s, with the filmmaker reportedly financing the film himself by selling a part of his wine empire. While the film struggles to find a distributor, Driver’s comments on the film and his character, Cesar, have excited fans more than anything.
Adam Driver Compares His Megalopolis Character To Francis Ford Coppola
Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola has been at the forefront of redefining films for a whole generation. The director’s masterpiece The Godfather is still considered to be one of the greatest films ever made and has influenced multiple films and filmmakers around the world. Coppola’s commitment to bring his own, unique vision to life has made him a legend.
However, his films have many times been plagued with production troubles. His Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now famously had a troubled production, which included changing the lead actor from Harvey Keitel to Martin Sheen, Sheen getting a heart attack, and production being shut down for weeks and going over budget. It was the subject of the documentary Hearts of Darkness (via Collider).
Coppola’s journey with Megalopolis has also not been easy. The filmmaker has been working on the project since the ‘80s and finally was able to greenlight it in 2019 after funding the $120 million project himself. Reports of staff leaving and the film going over budget also came out which the filmmaker has denied. The film has also had trouble finding a producer (via THR).
Perhaps, this is why lead actor Adam Driver saw a lot of the filmmaker in the protagonist Cesar in Megalopolis. Driver mentioned that the sci-fi epic was a wild film and compared architect Cesar’s determination in the film to Coppola’s own inquisitiveness in his art. Driver said to The Face,
“It’s kind of undefinable, which feels very general until you watch the movie…There’s not a lot of precedent for it and it’s wild on a big scale…Cesar is a visionary. He’s very much Francis [Ford Coppola], in a way, where he’s investigated every way of how people can do something and is trying not to get stuck on the right answer. That’s an idea that’s moving to me – and one that reflects Francis.”
Francis Ford Coppola’s epic is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and will be competing for the Palm d’Or.
Adam Driver Stops Time In The New Teaser For Megalopolis
After years of speculation and only a few stills from the film coming out, fans got to see the first teaser for Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Megalopolis. The short glimpse sees Adam Driver’s Cesar climb atop a skyscraper in a futuristic New York and look down at the traffic several stories below. The image is lit by the Golden Hour of the sunset.
As the golden clouds above him move around in the sky, Cesar speculates the distance below and gets ready to jump. As he almost goes down he screams, “Time stop!” to which everything pauses. After a brief few seconds of processing what he just did, Cesar snaps his hand the vehicles below continue in their journey.
Francis Ford Coppola’s epic reportedly follows a clash of visions between two schools of thought after New York goes through an accident and has to be rebuilt. While Cesar represents a new way of thinking, he clashes with his girlfriend’s father, Frank Cisero, who is a purist, which again hints at Coppola’s penchant for rebelling against the system.
Megalopolis was reportedly made on a budget of over $100 million, which was funded in full by Coppola. The filmmaker reportedly had to sell a part of his wine empire to fund the film (via Deadline). He dedicated the teaser to his wife Eleanor Coppola, who recently passed away (via THR).
