A new poster for Francis Ford Coppola's pricey passion project, Megalopolis, has just been released and the first full-length trailer will follow tomorrow.
As you can see below, Adam Driver's character is put front and centre; he's also accompanied by the tagline, "If You Can't See A Better Future, Build One."
Megalopolis has already been screened for many critics and, as a result, has a disappointing 53% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In recent weeks, we've also seen the sci-fi fable generate headlines for Coppola's alleged inappropriate advances towards extras while shooting.
Talking earlier this year about what he hopes to accomplish with Megalopolis, the 85-year-old filmmaker said, "My dream would be that this movie could be seen on New Year’s Eve and people would - instead of saying I’m going to lose weight or I’m not going to smoke anymore or I’m not going to cheat on my wife - talk about: Is the society we’re living in the only one available? How can we make it better?"
"And if they talk about it, they will. That’s my dream," Coppola continued. "When we leap into the unknown, we prove that we’re free. That’s me making this film. To all of the studio big shots, I proved that I’m free and they’re not. Because they don’t dare leap into the unknown. And I do. That’s the only way to prove that you’re free."
Whether The Godfather director's star-studded sci-fi movie will strike the chord he hopes remains to be seen. Back to those reviews and it doesn't sound like it will have mass appeal, so it might be down to hardcore cinephiles to make Megalopolis a hit.
Megalopolis is a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare.
Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero, the mayor's daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.
The movie stars Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Shia Labeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, Grace Vanderwaal, Kathryn Hunter, and Dustin Hoffman.
Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis arrives in theaters on September 27.