Adam Driver plays a visionary genius looking to save New York City by building a utopian, idealistic future, while dislodging an elite ruling class to do so, in the official trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded Megalopolis, which dropped Wednesday.
“Don’t let the now destroy the forever,” Driver’s Cesar Catilina character says from his offices in the Chrysler Building of his hopes for humanity in the event movie that reimagines the Roman Empire in modern America on the brink of ruin. To achieve his vision, Cesar must battle the pragmatist mayor Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito.
Cicero inherited a fiscal disaster from the previous administration and wants to build a casino complex to boost revenue for modern New York City. And torn between Cesar and Cicero is Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s independently minded daughter facing divided loyalties.
The latest trailer underlines the scale and ambition of Coppola’s passion project, and includes Madison Square Garden turned into a Colosseum with gladiatorial contests and chariot races. “In many ways, Cesar’s mission, both noble and egomaniacal, seems a direct reflection of the dogged determination of Francis Ford Coppola to get this movie made at any cost,” The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney said in his movie review.
The Hollywood director first began writing Megalopolis in 1983, and the film reportedly cost $120 million to make, which was funded in part by the sale of a significant portion of the director’s wine empire. Megalopolis will hit theaters Sept. 27, thanks to Lionsgate and Imax, after Coppola’s latest movie bowed in Cannes and has a North American premiere in Toronto.
