A film made in collaboration with the large cast that stars in the film -Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Voight-, to whom the filmmaker gave a lot of space in the creation process.
The 85-year-old director has a lot at stake with ‘Megalopolis’, a project that he ended up financing independently with 120 million dollars and that until it was selected by the Cannes Festival, it did not even have distribution for its theatrical release. .
A film that is based “on the idea that human beings are geniuses and that there is no problem that we cannot solve with our creativity, and that we must be above politics,” he asserts.
“Human beings are not stupid, we are brilliant. And that is what the film says at the end. Listen to César: he knows what he is talking about,” adds the filmmaker, winking at the ideas that Driver’s character gives off. along the tape.
Set in an imaginary modern America, the city of New Rome is the scene of a conflict between Cesar Catilina (Driver), a brilliant artist in favor of a utopian future, and his opponent, Franklyn Cicero (Esposito), who remains committed to a ‘ regressive status quo’, which perpetuates greed, special interests and partisan warfare.
The film is “indefinable. I think what makes it unique is that it is singular, one of a kind. I don’t think you can often make films like that, on this scale. And that’s why it’s been a great honor for me to be a part of this,” says Driver in an interview.
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The script of your dreams
Coppola began writing what he considers the “script of his dreams” more than four decades ago and in his peculiar style to direct masterpieces such as ‘The Godfather’ (‘The Godfather’, 1972) or ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979), The text underwent many changes.
After trying to get this project off the ground, “you’d think he’d finally want to execute this thing he’s had in his head for years,” Driver adds. But it wasn’t like that.
“I played with the entire cast and used the intensive collaboration style of work where everyone, even the actors, could make suggestions about a new scene. As a director I was more of a leader than a dictator,” says Coppola.
With this, the actors appeared on the set “without any type of pressure to develop an idea”, showing themselves more open to “participate, play, see what happened and not think so much about what the character is, because the limits are very broad “says the Star Wars actor.
And everything remains the same
Because it has been a living project since the American director sat down to develop it. “The moment in which this occurs in our historical time and in the space we find ourselves in now can inspire people to really see the future in a new and different way,” insists Esposito, who had the opportunity to read the text by Coppola more than 35 years ago.
With ‘Megalopolis’, the filmmaker “has empowered himself and us to make something that is quite different from anything we’ve seen before,” adds the ‘Breaking Bad’ actor.
The film, ultimately and despite the criticism, “is not a recycled version of five different films that have been seen on the same subject. It is a film that stands on its own and that, hopefully, challenges the conventional way in which people watch movies,” says Driver.
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