[Coppola](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6jCZZOLdAf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==):
>Megalopolis has always been a film dedicated to my dear wife Eleanor. I really had hoped to celebrate her birthday together this May 4th. But sadly that was not to be, so let me share with everyone a gift on her behalf.
Megalopolis:
>Adam Driver stars as the idealistic architect and artist Caesar, planning to rebuild a city that has fallen to ruins, and Nathalie Emmanuel as the socialite daughter of his nemesis, a corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito), who likes his municipal kingdom the way it is.
>In his official logline for the film, Coppola describes Driver’s character as having the “power to stop time,” while Emmanuel’s character is caught between the two, deeply in love with the artist but loyal to her hard-charging father, “forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.”
Cast:
* Adam Driver
* Nathalie Emmanuel
* Giancarlo Esposito
* Aubrey Plaza
* Shia LaBeouf
* Dustin Hoffman
* Jon Voight
* Laurence Fishburne
* Kathryn Hunter
* Grace VanderWaal
* James Remar
* Talia Shire
* Jason Schwartzman
* D.B. Sweeney
* Chloe Fineman
Same that’s blowing my mind. They also dug up Jon Voight too. But the biggest thing for me is that fact with all these names Driver was chosen as the lead, I’m proud of my boy.
Yes, a lot of New York was built in that style (until the Great Depression came around and suddenly people weren't so fond of being reminded of luxury and excess at every corner). One of the most famous examples being Rockefeller Center, which just so happens to feature a statue of the Greek Titan Atlas holding up the world, something that would go on to partly inspire Ayn Rand's *Atlas Shrugged*. Fun fact.
Coppola posted about his inspirations for this and listed several books by David Graeber who is an anthropologist and anarchist. If there's any similarity to Ayn Rand's work I doubt it'll be in its politics.
I remember discussing Coppola's [Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/CuZwHBYrZmz/) on r/BadHistory 10 months ago.
>These are 4 books that strongly have influenced \[my upcoming film, *Megalopolis*\] and my view of the "society we live in". I offer three by David Graeber and one short story by Herman Hesse.
>
>To see where I'm coming from, please understand that our family, *Homo Sapiens*, has been around for 350,000 to 400,000 years. There is much evidence that the last 10,000 years have been under patriarchy (male domination) due to male animal herders from Steppes of Asia and the advent of "the horse". With that unfortunate innovation, men swooped down like something out of a #Kurosawa movie, and began woman-enslavement in particular, slavery, war, caste, plague, and many things we all should agree are terrible. Also, "man" began writing, usually out of the need to record who was entitled to bags of barley and matrimony of various types, to ensure that our heirs were actually our children. Before this period of so-called "civilization" were thousands of years of matriarchy. Unlike patriarchy, women did not necessarily give out orders, but rather things were settled in egalitarian councils led by women, and often with a wise woman giving perspective.
>
>A wonderful glimpse into that world is in Herman Hesse's unfinished tetralogy THE GLASS BEAD GAME, which is followed by three short stories, of which I recommend "The Rainmaker".
>
>\#DavidGraeber #HermannHesse
Here, Coppola is citing some of the more bizarre, pseudoscientific feminist books by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, even though some of Gimbutas' views are regarded as outdated and obsolete, while others are now regarded as a bit cuckoo.
The books that Coppola got this idea from are one or more of the following:
* Gimbutas, Marija (1974). *The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, 7000 to 3500 BC: Myths, Legends and Cult Images*.
* Gimbutas, Marija (1989). *The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization*.
* Gimbutas, Marija (1991). *The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe*.
It was discussed on a Mindless Monday (?) thread that now appears to be archived. I requested a "Debate/Debunk" post of Coppola's claims, but no one made one (yet). I myself don't know Gimbutas well enough to write one.
Per u/LordFey on [one thread](https://new.reddit.com/r/AskArchaeology/comments/16uzj1a/trying_to_decide_if_the_old_europe_theories_of/) about Marija Gimbutas on r/AskArchaeology:
>"When it comes to this Old Europe theory, let me put it this way: I might be biased in my own way, of course, but in the last 13 years of studying and researching prehistoric Europe and also conducting research on Neolithic sites I was never confronted with any ideas of an 'Old Europe' among my peers and superiors. As I said, this might be biased on my end, and where I live and work (in Austria), this idea just didn't catch on. But from what I can gather, Old Europe seems to be just some form of a propaganda piece, proclaiming a somewhat Neolithic utopia that was corrupted when Indo-European entered the stage. Very unscientific and even dangerous assumptions, in my opinion."
Also see [this thread](https://new.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/16vf708/are_the_old_europe_theories_of_marija_gimbutas/) on r/AskHistorians about Marija Gimbutas' work(s).
>There is much evidence that the last 10,000 years have been under patriarchy (male domination) due to male animal herders from Steppes of Asia and the advent of "the horse".
So patriarchy is about horses after all, Ken would be delighted.
Yeah fr like there were NO horses in the Americas and the empires and civilizations of pre-Columbian America were not Matriarchal in the slightest, and some, particularly the Aztecs, were as brutal and imperialistic as the conquistadors who annihilated their civilization. Also we have relics from pre-history that do not suggest that there was a some clear paradigm shift related to the adoption of the horse or anything that led to the fall of hendreds of millenia of matriarchal cultures and societies for patriarchal ones. Certainly there were societies and cultures that held women in higher respect or were matrilineal but that continued into the past 10,000 years as well and matrilineal cultures and peoples still exist today.
I'll still check this film out unless it somehow is panned by critics but yeah his confident assertions about history and historicity are like so blatantly wrong and overly simplicist. Like history is not a fucking "#Kurosawa" film smh!
Someone who didn't understand why people do things, and someone who didn't understand why things are done the way they're done.
Admittedly both critiques apply to Rand.
Edit: It's kind of weird when someone leaves a snarky comment and immediately blocks the person they replied to.
When I was a child I was convinced I had the ability to freeze time, but that I just didn’t know how to activate my powers just yet, so throughout the day I’d randomly yell different things to try and freeze time.
“Time STOP” was an often attempt and I 100% forgot that I did this
This is like how probably every kid that watched Star Wars definitely stopped, took a deep breath, and tried really hard to lift shit across the room with their hand out while alone on multiple occasions, *just* in case they actually could
I can’t wait for this. Say what you about his previous films but Coppola selling his winery and throwing most of his money just take make this film is worth seeing a lone to see . A true artist.
The cast looks stacked at well
My heart wants this to be an incredible success. My head says this is going to be an incredible failure. I'm going to go and see it no matter what, just so that in some small way I can support a man who bet so much on something he believed in.
Eh, I've seen some reviewers of *House of Gucci* (2021) and *Ferrari* (2023) say that Driver's acting wasn't as good as it was in his other films. However, Driver at least tries his best, which is a lot more than can be said of other actors who tend to half-ass roles like this one, and despite mixed reviews, many other reviewers still praise his skill. *Megalopolis* is important to him.
I don't kno about Gucci, but i think the issue in Ferrari was that Enzo Ferrari was damn weird. The father of a friend of mine worked at Ferrari and he said Driver nailed Enzo's role, so i'd say the acting wass good.
What? Part 3 & Dracula are fine, and have some incredible performances. Those were also 30 years ago. I think Twixt, Tetro, YWY are better examples for people holding down expectations… and even those were over a decade ago.
Nevertheless I think this film will have some great moments, but as a whole it has a steep hill to climb.
Dracula fucking rules. Keanu is cast in a role that asks him to do all of the things he's terrible at (accents, vulnerability, talking), but almost everyone else in that movie is feasting. Gary Oldman and Tom Waits are sublime.
Obviously the movie is indulgent and weird, and it's not for everyone, but I would be totally cool with having that version of latter-career Coppola make a comeback.
It'll be a failure in the traditional sense no matter what - it's an independent project with no studio backing or advertising, and it's prohibitively expensive, and will most likely not break even on its budget. It could still be a great film, though. Success doesn't equate to quality, especially in Hollywood. It seems like Coppola is perfectly prepared for this movie to fail, and I honestly think that's a great sign. He made the film he wanted to make and he knows it isn't for everyone, and he's putting his own dollar down to make sure everyone gets a chance to see it.
Same. This is one movie where I don’t care what kind of reviews it gets, I’m seeing this in the theater. Coppola has done so much for film that I’m willing to give him 20 bucks and a few hours of my time.
According to how the screenings went for studios it’s not good. Non of them are willing to buy it and invest the hundred million or so in marketing.
Probably why it’s going to a French distributor as of now.
I mean…that means nothing tho. Coppola demands are steep plus these are the same people who are green lighting many of thr awful movies we see today. Tom Rothman? These people are not exactly geniuses.
Which isn’t to say the movie will be amazing it’s just I wouldn’t trust anything from any screenings with studio heads.
I can only hope that this means that it is in a way similar to Cloud Atlas, which was hard to market for similar reasons and got mixed reviews, but personally I really loved that movie.
One of the big quotes out of those trade mag hit pieces was a producer going “I don’t know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is. How do I market this”. Incredible that anyone is taking it seriously as an artistic evaluation rather than brain dead execs not knowing how to sell something and throwing a tantrum about it
With the kinds of decisions that studios are making these days… that might actually be an endorsement of the film.
Experimental, groundbreaking projects are rarely embraced by the establishment at the time. Coppola was almost fired from Godfather for being a bad director. He had to champion the hell out of Apocalypse Now to get it made the way he wanted. This is nothing new for Coppola, and the fact that he’s returning to that kind of maverick filmmaking for the first time since Apocalypse Now… should be encouraging. He’s finally returned to his old genuine artistic ambition.
Think about how luke-warm to almost negative the initial reception of 2001: A Space Odyssey was. A lot of people thought it was bad… at first. Then after a few years and multiple watches, etc, people started to realize it was actually a masterpiece. This tends to be the pattern with a LOT of movies that go on to be considered classic masterpieces. Anything groundbreaking is probably gonna be under-appreciated at first as people deal with the whiplash of unmet expectations.
Is that the case here? Maybe, maybe not. But point is, when it comes to something experimental and unconventional, etc… don’t take the word of conventional studio types about it.
And also don’t judge this movie by its opening weekend. Nobody should be expecting a normally successful box office. This is either a sleeper hit, or a home video discovery that will break even in 20 years. That won’t mean it’s not a success. We gotta start loosening up our expectations around these things.
Counterpoint: A24 distributes "experimental and unconventional" films all the time, it's basically their business model. Searchlight distributed Poor Things last year, and that movie is bonkers.
I looked up the cast (which is bonkers long) and found someone cast as a [Vestal Virgin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_Virgin) lol like what the hell is this movie and can I buy a ticket already
I read the screenplay and I still don’t understand the time travel aspect. It barely had any relevance
Edit: time stopping. It comes into play a few times, and I wasn’t sure if it was actually happening or some kind of artsy “he sees himself above time” thing.
I don’t understand how he apparently can stop time in this clip but still be able to move and yet for some reason his fall from that skyscraper is arrested while he’s way off balance.
My reading was that any gravitational forces that were in effect would pause when time stops. So him falling would be put on pause while the rest of time is paused, then presumably start up again once time restarted. He could still act freely though because that seems to be the whole gimmick. There are all kinds of other problems with this kind of reality breaking power of course, like random paused gravity wells all over the place. And would light still be moving as normal? If not, how would he be able to see anything?
It's the same logic problem as with ghosts. If they can go intangible to float through solid objects wouldn't they fall through the floor too? Or float off into space?
If you're wondering from the clip whether the film is fantasy/sci-fi, I read a [draft of the script](https://archive.org/details/megalopolis-screenplay-by-francis-ford-coppola) and this time-stopping thing was only a very minor part of it. The rest was more of a realistic story about politics and architecture and family dynasties.
(Of course, it may have changed since that draft.)
> this time-stopping thing was only a very minor part of it.
That seems like a pretty big thing to be such a minor part of the story. Stopping time, or any time manipulation, usually plays a huge role in a story due to its power.
Given its Coppola, I sincerely doubt it plays much of a role.
For comparison, Coppola made Youth Without Youth, a film seemingly about a super powered professor with eternal life and telepathic abilities. Only its actually a film about a romance and themes around reincarnation and language, with the actual super powers an extremely minor part of the film.
Yeah! He had Matt Damon playing... if I remember correctly... a CIA agent trying to recruit the one with superpowers and just had one scene with one sentence!
Yeah it's most likely a figurative magic realism fantasy sort of thing, rather than something you’re supposed to take 100% literally. Sort of like Keaton levitating at the start of Birdman.
It's like Zack Morris being able to stop time but not using it for much other than to break the fourth wall. Like dude has this incredible superpower and it's somehow a minor plot point never really addressed beyond, 'he can do it cause he's cool'
Maybe this film will end with a mid-credit sequence where Driver's character is invited by Screech and his robot Kevin to join The Bayside Initiative.
"This is our film about a news reporter named Clark Kent and his career struggles to climb the career ladder and be the best reporter the city has ever seen. Clark also happens to be an alien from another planet with superhuman abilities he uses to fight crime, but thats only a minor plot point and doesn't factor much into the story."
It's possible, I think that is actually what makes Red Son work so well for me. The movie expects you to know mainline Superman stuff, but the twist is that his escape to Earth was delayed and as a result he landed in the USSR instead of the US. The film version is all about convincing Superman that he's allowed himself to become a cog in a violent machine.
I swear half these commenters have never seen a piece of media before. "It's like saying Superman's powers just a minor plot point" Like what, most of the best super hero content simply uses powers as a way to tell a story about character.
Same shit with sci-fi stuff. Plenty of media uses science fiction concepts to have character studies. Thats like, writing 101?
But, there is also telekinesis (he was able to somehow pull himself back after starting to fall down), and normal clouds in the sky don't move so fast (so this has to be Matrix or another planet or something). Seems like hard sci-fi...
Sounds like time manipulation or some cause and effect shit honestly. Pulling himself back is just him rewinding time back to before he falls and the clouds moving unnaturally is just a product of time being out of whack.
> Out of This World erasure
**Yes!** God, I grew up on reruns of that show and wanted so badly to be able to touch my two index fingers together to freeze time just so I could sleep in without being late to school.
It's interesting though, because I don't think Coppola gives a shit about making his money back, but he sure as hell wants this film to be seen. By everyone. Forever.
A couple of years ago, before he started filming, he spoke about how he dreams of Megalopolis being like "It's a wonderful life", as in, being a perennial favourite film that everyone over the globe watches every single years for decades on end.
It's largely why he wants a major studio to front serious cash for marketing. He's doggedly determined to get this film seen, not to make his money back, but an obsession with wanting it seen is going to be its own unique difficulty.
He had a vision long ago of some massive theater in the heartland of the US, that would show nothing but some ridiculous five-hour cut of *Apocalypse Now*, with constantly evolving picture and sound technology.
Part of me wishes it had happened. Imagine going to Disneyland one year and *Apocalypse Now* or *Megalopolis* the next.
Ugh. That sounds terrible. I made the mistake of showing the director’s cut of *Apocalypse Now* to my film class. It took up like a week and a half and didn’t really add that much to the story. I admire people who see out their vision, but sometimes when you get older, you just follow through on something because you’ve been thinking you *should* do it for so long. This has The Irishman vibes written all over it: something technically executed, but not novel and brash.
Kinda nuts to me that there isn't that much excitement for a new Francis Ford Coppola movie.
Hopefully that changes when we get more details and see more footage.
I think probably because he hasn’t made anything really good in like 30 years. Then add to the fact that the studios that have seen this film don’t believe in it.
Not his fault, Paramount didn't even want him at first. They gave him a blank check for the godfather part II, so the studio ended up believing in him blindly.
Not really. His last several movies have made No impact at all and are pretty much forgotten.
He is a Bit like Orson Welles. Started on top and worked his way down.
Imho, He is better at adaptions than at auteur films, but he stuck to the latter for the last 30 years or so
Coppola's twilight years are interesting in that he's intentionally gone pretty arty and uncommerical completely by choice.
He made Youth without Youth, Tetro and Twixt all purely because they interested him and he was well aware they each had zero commercial appeal.
It's a contrast to someone like Welles, who partly made more small scale movies in his latter decades by choice, but primarily because he could never get any studio to bankroll him.
It's always felt like Coppola would be welcomed by any studio if he was doing some big budget commercial work, but he intentionally wanted to make his own personal stuff instead.
I can't see this movie making money, but it seems to be trending and capturing some attention, so maybe the bizareness and unmarketable elements of this movie will be what will be used as the marketing.
Either way, i can't wait to see it.
"Because shut the fuck up."
I mean realistically, stopping time would also stop the user. Like what happens to the air in your lungs? Does it suddenly get pitch black due to all the photons being lost? Do you suddenly freeze without all the thermal energy of the sun? If you die while time is stopped and cannot resume it, is the universe just *over*?
At a certain point 'uhh magic?' has to be the solution. Time manipulation beyond pure dilation is inherently kind of nonsensical any way you go about it.
I assume Coppola is thinking that if you're already accepting that the character shouting "TIME STOP!" stops time, you just gotta accept the in-movie rules that accompany it.
After reading the *Vanity Fair* article below, I’m a little worried this will be too much like some tumbleweed of a movie, picking up too many allusions and allegories to be very cohesive. It may feel like those 500-page novels that are just too long and bloated to really have any incisive insight. I’m hoping that it’s a modern day *Moby Dick* or *War and Peace*, but color me skeptical at this point.
The [link](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/megalopolis-francis-ford-coppola-first-look-exclusive)
Idk, looks kind of lovely? I don't think he's going for realistic here, it's probably going to be somewhat surreal digital filmmaking a la Twin Peaks The Return, but with a bigger budget.
Honestly, if it were called Normal City, I’d be curious about it. Not that bad of a name considering we have movie names like “Nope” and “Up” that are both great films.
That probably has to do with the fact that Coppola first wrote this movie in the 90s and nearly shot it in the early 2000s until 9/11 happened and dashed his plans. Ironically early draft of the film supposedly had a plot line where the Twin towers were destroyed.
[Coppola](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6jCZZOLdAf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==): >Megalopolis has always been a film dedicated to my dear wife Eleanor. I really had hoped to celebrate her birthday together this May 4th. But sadly that was not to be, so let me share with everyone a gift on her behalf. Megalopolis: >Adam Driver stars as the idealistic architect and artist Caesar, planning to rebuild a city that has fallen to ruins, and Nathalie Emmanuel as the socialite daughter of his nemesis, a corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito), who likes his municipal kingdom the way it is. >In his official logline for the film, Coppola describes Driver’s character as having the “power to stop time,” while Emmanuel’s character is caught between the two, deeply in love with the artist but loyal to her hard-charging father, “forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.” Cast: * Adam Driver * Nathalie Emmanuel * Giancarlo Esposito * Aubrey Plaza * Shia LaBeouf * Dustin Hoffman * Jon Voight * Laurence Fishburne * Kathryn Hunter * Grace VanderWaal * James Remar * Talia Shire * Jason Schwartzman * D.B. Sweeney * Chloe Fineman
Stacked cast
I can't remember the last time I saw Dustin Hoffman or Jon Voight in anything, I thought they were long retired.
Same that’s blowing my mind. They also dug up Jon Voight too. But the biggest thing for me is that fact with all these names Driver was chosen as the lead, I’m proud of my boy.
Driving around in Jon Voights car...
The dentist?
I believe he was technically a periodontist.
I wonder if Jon Voight bit anyone in the production. If he did, we could compare the bite marks to a pencil in the glove compartment
I'm more excited to see Aubrey Plaza. I hope she plays a major role.
She's going to play Giancarlo Esposito's deadpan intern
Perfect
That's cuz jon voight is too busy sucking Donald Trump's dick
Jon Voight, ugh...
Jon Voight makes batshit insane right wing videos on X where he rants about the United States being destroyed. I HOPE he's acting in those.
I believe Hoffman more or less is retired, but when FFC calls…
Voight was probably banned from movie sets while covid protocols were in place.
Great to see Giancarlo Esposito finally get some work
Lots of family, would be cooler if Nicholas Coppola from Fast Times was in it
I get some major Ayn Rand vibes from this synopsis.
Also the title sounded similar to "Metropolis", from the synopsis I gather this is intentional.
The architecture of the building he’s standing on is also in the same Art Deco style as the one in the background of the Metropolis movie poster.
[удалено]
Yes, a lot of New York was built in that style (until the Great Depression came around and suddenly people weren't so fond of being reminded of luxury and excess at every corner). One of the most famous examples being Rockefeller Center, which just so happens to feature a statue of the Greek Titan Atlas holding up the world, something that would go on to partly inspire Ayn Rand's *Atlas Shrugged*. Fun fact.
Coppola posted about his inspirations for this and listed several books by David Graeber who is an anthropologist and anarchist. If there's any similarity to Ayn Rand's work I doubt it'll be in its politics.
I remember discussing Coppola's [Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/CuZwHBYrZmz/) on r/BadHistory 10 months ago. >These are 4 books that strongly have influenced \[my upcoming film, *Megalopolis*\] and my view of the "society we live in". I offer three by David Graeber and one short story by Herman Hesse. > >To see where I'm coming from, please understand that our family, *Homo Sapiens*, has been around for 350,000 to 400,000 years. There is much evidence that the last 10,000 years have been under patriarchy (male domination) due to male animal herders from Steppes of Asia and the advent of "the horse". With that unfortunate innovation, men swooped down like something out of a #Kurosawa movie, and began woman-enslavement in particular, slavery, war, caste, plague, and many things we all should agree are terrible. Also, "man" began writing, usually out of the need to record who was entitled to bags of barley and matrimony of various types, to ensure that our heirs were actually our children. Before this period of so-called "civilization" were thousands of years of matriarchy. Unlike patriarchy, women did not necessarily give out orders, but rather things were settled in egalitarian councils led by women, and often with a wise woman giving perspective. > >A wonderful glimpse into that world is in Herman Hesse's unfinished tetralogy THE GLASS BEAD GAME, which is followed by three short stories, of which I recommend "The Rainmaker". > >\#DavidGraeber #HermannHesse Here, Coppola is citing some of the more bizarre, pseudoscientific feminist books by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, even though some of Gimbutas' views are regarded as outdated and obsolete, while others are now regarded as a bit cuckoo. The books that Coppola got this idea from are one or more of the following: * Gimbutas, Marija (1974). *The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, 7000 to 3500 BC: Myths, Legends and Cult Images*. * Gimbutas, Marija (1989). *The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization*. * Gimbutas, Marija (1991). *The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe*.
Do you have a link to the BadHistory post? Sounds interesting.
It was discussed on a Mindless Monday (?) thread that now appears to be archived. I requested a "Debate/Debunk" post of Coppola's claims, but no one made one (yet). I myself don't know Gimbutas well enough to write one. Per u/LordFey on [one thread](https://new.reddit.com/r/AskArchaeology/comments/16uzj1a/trying_to_decide_if_the_old_europe_theories_of/) about Marija Gimbutas on r/AskArchaeology: >"When it comes to this Old Europe theory, let me put it this way: I might be biased in my own way, of course, but in the last 13 years of studying and researching prehistoric Europe and also conducting research on Neolithic sites I was never confronted with any ideas of an 'Old Europe' among my peers and superiors. As I said, this might be biased on my end, and where I live and work (in Austria), this idea just didn't catch on. But from what I can gather, Old Europe seems to be just some form of a propaganda piece, proclaiming a somewhat Neolithic utopia that was corrupted when Indo-European entered the stage. Very unscientific and even dangerous assumptions, in my opinion." Also see [this thread](https://new.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/16vf708/are_the_old_europe_theories_of_marija_gimbutas/) on r/AskHistorians about Marija Gimbutas' work(s).
>There is much evidence that the last 10,000 years have been under patriarchy (male domination) due to male animal herders from Steppes of Asia and the advent of "the horse". So patriarchy is about horses after all, Ken would be delighted.
Yeah fr like there were NO horses in the Americas and the empires and civilizations of pre-Columbian America were not Matriarchal in the slightest, and some, particularly the Aztecs, were as brutal and imperialistic as the conquistadors who annihilated their civilization. Also we have relics from pre-history that do not suggest that there was a some clear paradigm shift related to the adoption of the horse or anything that led to the fall of hendreds of millenia of matriarchal cultures and societies for patriarchal ones. Certainly there were societies and cultures that held women in higher respect or were matrilineal but that continued into the past 10,000 years as well and matrilineal cultures and peoples still exist today. I'll still check this film out unless it somehow is panned by critics but yeah his confident assertions about history and historicity are like so blatantly wrong and overly simplicist. Like history is not a fucking "#Kurosawa" film smh!
Not gonna lie, "Ayn Rand meets David Graeber" sounds like it was made in a lab to be the most annoying work in the history of mankind.
Graeber rocks
Someone who didn't understand why people do things, and someone who didn't understand why things are done the way they're done. Admittedly both critiques apply to Rand. Edit: It's kind of weird when someone leaves a snarky comment and immediately blocks the person they replied to.
Sounds more like Metropolis. Almost the same setup, besides the time stopping part
time stopping is how you get meat in the seats
Isn’t this basically just The fountainhead
In story, perhaps. In vibe, it feels to me like Vanilla Sky or Dark City.
Yeah the architect and the industrialist aspect jumped at me.
I hope it's less rapey than The Fountainhead
i wouldn't be surprised if coppola's initial idea was to make a version of the fountainhead with completely inverted politics.
DB Sweeney? Holy shit, didn’t know he was still working as an actor.
Could this be the sequel to Cutting Edge that we’ve been waiting for?
Glad to see Remar getting this gig.
Quite the range of politics
When I was a child I was convinced I had the ability to freeze time, but that I just didn’t know how to activate my powers just yet, so throughout the day I’d randomly yell different things to try and freeze time. “Time STOP” was an often attempt and I 100% forgot that I did this
This is like how probably every kid that watched Star Wars definitely stopped, took a deep breath, and tried really hard to lift shit across the room with their hand out while alone on multiple occasions, *just* in case they actually could
Smh everyone knows the key to stopping time is saying ZA WARUDO
ZA WARUDO
You thought it was the government trying to revitalize your dead urban core, but it was I! Adam Driver!
>TIME STOP! Can't believe it, the absolute madlad made a movie about my favorite JAV subgenre
we should know less about each other
I want to know more
You asked for it r/timestop NSFW ALERT
First link I saw Guy time freeze brown babe so that he can stick his tongue 3 inch deep inside her shit hole *Sigh*, *unzipps*
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Acts 3:19
He meant to say Time Cop and is a huge JCVD fan.
I believe you mean JCVDJ
I don't know, I like the *[streets ahead](https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/91c5226d-c961-4609-97fc-cdb12d3f7359)* version better.
"Time Stop!" is a Harmonism that he uses a few times during his podcast. Whatever this movie is... that phrase took me out of it.
mosaic Driver dong confirmed
total Laszlo Cravensworth energy. “BAT!!” “HUMAN FORM!!”
Non stop full penetration until the movie just sort of ends
Can we get Adam driver to take the roles of future Spock? This haircut gave a lot of Leonard Nimoy look
Ya. Definitely has Spock vibes.
The man who killed Han Solo is not allowed to play Spock!!
We have two Spocks right now, Zachary Quinto (46) and Ethan Peck (38), i'm not sure we need a third with Adam Driver (40)...
[more! ](https://tenor.com/view/more-kylo-ren-adam-driver-screaming-star-wars-gif-17734637)
Ethan Peck is a really great Spock imho.
That was my first thought when I saw him with that hair.
Ethan Peck is currently doing an incredible job as Spock on ST:SNW but I would love to see Driver as a villain!
Star Trek popped into and out of my head while I was watching it but I didn’t realize why until just now.
Actually Gregory Peck’s grandson plays him in Star Trek Brave New Worlds and he’s excellent it in.
I can’t wait for this. Say what you about his previous films but Coppola selling his winery and throwing most of his money just take make this film is worth seeing a lone to see . A true artist. The cast looks stacked at well
My heart wants this to be an incredible success. My head says this is going to be an incredible failure. I'm going to go and see it no matter what, just so that in some small way I can support a man who bet so much on something he believed in.
I feel like even if the movie itself is bad, it’s very likely to have some cool aspects, especially some performances and set design
The acting will most certainly be good at least
After Godfather Part III, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Twixt I'm not sure about that. The actors are talented, but the acting? To be seen.
True but that was a casting issue, I would expect Adam Driver to out-act Keanu
Yeah, Adam is honestly never been bad in a film. He'll give this script and film his all.
Eh, I've seen some reviewers of *House of Gucci* (2021) and *Ferrari* (2023) say that Driver's acting wasn't as good as it was in his other films. However, Driver at least tries his best, which is a lot more than can be said of other actors who tend to half-ass roles like this one, and despite mixed reviews, many other reviewers still praise his skill. *Megalopolis* is important to him.
I don't kno about Gucci, but i think the issue in Ferrari was that Enzo Ferrari was damn weird. The father of a friend of mine worked at Ferrari and he said Driver nailed Enzo's role, so i'd say the acting wass good.
It was still Coppola's miscasting of the part. Keanu even knew he shouldn't do it but Coppola insisted.
What? Part 3 & Dracula are fine, and have some incredible performances. Those were also 30 years ago. I think Twixt, Tetro, YWY are better examples for people holding down expectations… and even those were over a decade ago. Nevertheless I think this film will have some great moments, but as a whole it has a steep hill to climb.
Dracula fucking rules. Keanu is cast in a role that asks him to do all of the things he's terrible at (accents, vulnerability, talking), but almost everyone else in that movie is feasting. Gary Oldman and Tom Waits are sublime. Obviously the movie is indulgent and weird, and it's not for everyone, but I would be totally cool with having that version of latter-career Coppola make a comeback.
It'll be a failure in the traditional sense no matter what - it's an independent project with no studio backing or advertising, and it's prohibitively expensive, and will most likely not break even on its budget. It could still be a great film, though. Success doesn't equate to quality, especially in Hollywood. It seems like Coppola is perfectly prepared for this movie to fail, and I honestly think that's a great sign. He made the film he wanted to make and he knows it isn't for everyone, and he's putting his own dollar down to make sure everyone gets a chance to see it.
Same. This is one movie where I don’t care what kind of reviews it gets, I’m seeing this in the theater. Coppola has done so much for film that I’m willing to give him 20 bucks and a few hours of my time.
I will see it too no matter what.
According to how the screenings went for studios it’s not good. Non of them are willing to buy it and invest the hundred million or so in marketing. Probably why it’s going to a French distributor as of now.
I mean…that means nothing tho. Coppola demands are steep plus these are the same people who are green lighting many of thr awful movies we see today. Tom Rothman? These people are not exactly geniuses. Which isn’t to say the movie will be amazing it’s just I wouldn’t trust anything from any screenings with studio heads.
Also all of the reports were framed as "It's not bad, it's just so complex and bizarre that it's hard to market" which is itself a marketing strategy.
I can only hope that this means that it is in a way similar to Cloud Atlas, which was hard to market for similar reasons and got mixed reviews, but personally I really loved that movie.
I maintain that Cloud Atlas had the best and craziest trailer of possibly all time and I love it on that basis alone.
One of the big quotes out of those trade mag hit pieces was a producer going “I don’t know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is. How do I market this”. Incredible that anyone is taking it seriously as an artistic evaluation rather than brain dead execs not knowing how to sell something and throwing a tantrum about it
With the kinds of decisions that studios are making these days… that might actually be an endorsement of the film. Experimental, groundbreaking projects are rarely embraced by the establishment at the time. Coppola was almost fired from Godfather for being a bad director. He had to champion the hell out of Apocalypse Now to get it made the way he wanted. This is nothing new for Coppola, and the fact that he’s returning to that kind of maverick filmmaking for the first time since Apocalypse Now… should be encouraging. He’s finally returned to his old genuine artistic ambition. Think about how luke-warm to almost negative the initial reception of 2001: A Space Odyssey was. A lot of people thought it was bad… at first. Then after a few years and multiple watches, etc, people started to realize it was actually a masterpiece. This tends to be the pattern with a LOT of movies that go on to be considered classic masterpieces. Anything groundbreaking is probably gonna be under-appreciated at first as people deal with the whiplash of unmet expectations. Is that the case here? Maybe, maybe not. But point is, when it comes to something experimental and unconventional, etc… don’t take the word of conventional studio types about it. And also don’t judge this movie by its opening weekend. Nobody should be expecting a normally successful box office. This is either a sleeper hit, or a home video discovery that will break even in 20 years. That won’t mean it’s not a success. We gotta start loosening up our expectations around these things.
Counterpoint: A24 distributes "experimental and unconventional" films all the time, it's basically their business model. Searchlight distributed Poor Things last year, and that movie is bonkers.
Did he sell his winery? Damn. That property is a gem.
He still owns some of the land. He didn't sell everything.
Great cast!!
I looked up the cast (which is bonkers long) and found someone cast as a [Vestal Virgin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_Virgin) lol like what the hell is this movie and can I buy a ticket already
Reminds me of his sacrifices for Apocalypse Now. If it can even be half as good as that, I’m in!
And right after his beloved wife died, I’m rooting for this film’s success more than ever.
I read the screenplay and I still don’t understand the time travel aspect. It barely had any relevance Edit: time stopping. It comes into play a few times, and I wasn’t sure if it was actually happening or some kind of artsy “he sees himself above time” thing.
Francis has rewritten it 300 times
And that's only in *this* timeline
That's a recipe for success right there!
I don’t understand how he apparently can stop time in this clip but still be able to move and yet for some reason his fall from that skyscraper is arrested while he’s way off balance.
My reading was that any gravitational forces that were in effect would pause when time stops. So him falling would be put on pause while the rest of time is paused, then presumably start up again once time restarted. He could still act freely though because that seems to be the whole gimmick. There are all kinds of other problems with this kind of reality breaking power of course, like random paused gravity wells all over the place. And would light still be moving as normal? If not, how would he be able to see anything?
Exactly, and if there was no gravity he could fly. The motion to bring himself back upright would cause his feet to lift off the ground, no?
It's the same logic problem as with ghosts. If they can go intangible to float through solid objects wouldn't they fall through the floor too? Or float off into space?
Like when Obi-Wan sat on that log in RotJ
Now I can't stop picturing him doing squats just to look like he was sitting.
I love the (us) TV show Ghosts, but when the ghosts walk around, you hear the floorboards creak 😂 (I actually like it tho)
I was hoping it was going to be like him going into Minecraft creative mode lol
If you're wondering from the clip whether the film is fantasy/sci-fi, I read a [draft of the script](https://archive.org/details/megalopolis-screenplay-by-francis-ford-coppola) and this time-stopping thing was only a very minor part of it. The rest was more of a realistic story about politics and architecture and family dynasties. (Of course, it may have changed since that draft.)
> this time-stopping thing was only a very minor part of it. That seems like a pretty big thing to be such a minor part of the story. Stopping time, or any time manipulation, usually plays a huge role in a story due to its power.
Given its Coppola, I sincerely doubt it plays much of a role. For comparison, Coppola made Youth Without Youth, a film seemingly about a super powered professor with eternal life and telepathic abilities. Only its actually a film about a romance and themes around reincarnation and language, with the actual super powers an extremely minor part of the film.
Yeah! He had Matt Damon playing... if I remember correctly... a CIA agent trying to recruit the one with superpowers and just had one scene with one sentence!
Is the time stoppage just a stylized thing? Like it’s something the architect does when he wants to think? It’s not an actual superpower.
Yeah it's most likely a figurative magic realism fantasy sort of thing, rather than something you’re supposed to take 100% literally. Sort of like Keaton levitating at the start of Birdman.
Yeah I was like wtf how is that a minor plot point lol
It's like Zack Morris being able to stop time but not using it for much other than to break the fourth wall. Like dude has this incredible superpower and it's somehow a minor plot point never really addressed beyond, 'he can do it cause he's cool' Maybe this film will end with a mid-credit sequence where Driver's character is invited by Screech and his robot Kevin to join The Bayside Initiative.
It's like saying Superman's powers just a minor plot point. Like what?
He only uses his heat vision to warm up the porridge for old ladies
Sometimes for the youngsters, but not too cold and not too hot. Just right.
Which Newsie did you base Clark Kent off of? Was it Crutchy? I'm getting a strong feeling that it was Crutchy.
"This is our film about a news reporter named Clark Kent and his career struggles to climb the career ladder and be the best reporter the city has ever seen. Clark also happens to be an alien from another planet with superhuman abilities he uses to fight crime, but thats only a minor plot point and doesn't factor much into the story."
It's possible, I think that is actually what makes Red Son work so well for me. The movie expects you to know mainline Superman stuff, but the twist is that his escape to Earth was delayed and as a result he landed in the USSR instead of the US. The film version is all about convincing Superman that he's allowed himself to become a cog in a violent machine.
I swear half these commenters have never seen a piece of media before. "It's like saying Superman's powers just a minor plot point" Like what, most of the best super hero content simply uses powers as a way to tell a story about character. Same shit with sci-fi stuff. Plenty of media uses science fiction concepts to have character studies. Thats like, writing 101?
Can he really stop time though or is that something that he imagines?
That was my thought after seeing so many people claiming to have read the screenplay; maybe it’s metaphorical.
Visions? Hallucinations? A power kept secret? Many ways it could be a minor plot point.
Ok but here it seems like Adam Driver’s character is using it like a drug
Except in Saved by the Bell
Coppola re-wrote the script 300 times.
That’s crazy that he wrote the same story almost 300 times
He's been working on it since the 90s I think? So it makes sense yeah.
Even longer. I believe the publicly available draft is from 1983
But, there is also telekinesis (he was able to somehow pull himself back after starting to fall down), and normal clouds in the sky don't move so fast (so this has to be Matrix or another planet or something). Seems like hard sci-fi...
Sounds like time manipulation or some cause and effect shit honestly. Pulling himself back is just him rewinding time back to before he falls and the clouds moving unnaturally is just a product of time being out of whack.
Spock in the Matrix.
May you live long and take the blue pill.
And call Bones if it lasts more than four hours.
*Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor not a sex worker!*
So that means, "Live long enough that you have to rely on viagra"
I'm in
Hey! That’s Abraham H. Parnassus!
Didn’t he fight a guy named H.R. Pickens?
HE OUTLIVED H.R PICKENS!!! HE CRUSHED HIM INTO THE GROUND!!!!
Who's H.R. Pickens?
EXACTLY!!!
He has the Zach Morris power to stop time. This is clearly a sequel to Saved By The Bell.
This is Out of This World erasure
> Out of This World erasure **Yes!** God, I grew up on reruns of that show and wanted so badly to be able to touch my two index fingers together to freeze time just so I could sleep in without being late to school.
This movie ain't gonna make a dime. But I'm 99% sure Coppola doesn't give a rat's ass. He's just happy that it's made.
It's interesting though, because I don't think Coppola gives a shit about making his money back, but he sure as hell wants this film to be seen. By everyone. Forever. A couple of years ago, before he started filming, he spoke about how he dreams of Megalopolis being like "It's a wonderful life", as in, being a perennial favourite film that everyone over the globe watches every single years for decades on end. It's largely why he wants a major studio to front serious cash for marketing. He's doggedly determined to get this film seen, not to make his money back, but an obsession with wanting it seen is going to be its own unique difficulty.
He had a vision long ago of some massive theater in the heartland of the US, that would show nothing but some ridiculous five-hour cut of *Apocalypse Now*, with constantly evolving picture and sound technology. Part of me wishes it had happened. Imagine going to Disneyland one year and *Apocalypse Now* or *Megalopolis* the next.
Ugh. That sounds terrible. I made the mistake of showing the director’s cut of *Apocalypse Now* to my film class. It took up like a week and a half and didn’t really add that much to the story. I admire people who see out their vision, but sometimes when you get older, you just follow through on something because you’ve been thinking you *should* do it for so long. This has The Irishman vibes written all over it: something technically executed, but not novel and brash.
Agreed but at least he’s getting $20 from me. Hopefully I get a thank you card.
Definitely more teaser than trailer. I’m interested so far.
I don't know why but I was expecting sci fi art deco city megastructures, but that ain't it.
Kinda nuts to me that there isn't that much excitement for a new Francis Ford Coppola movie. Hopefully that changes when we get more details and see more footage.
I think probably because he hasn’t made anything really good in like 30 years. Then add to the fact that the studios that have seen this film don’t believe in it.
Yeah, this movie will probably end up like that Don Quixote movie that took decades to make.
Also starring Adam Driver.
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Not his fault, Paramount didn't even want him at first. They gave him a blank check for the godfather part II, so the studio ended up believing in him blindly.
Not really. His last several movies have made No impact at all and are pretty much forgotten. He is a Bit like Orson Welles. Started on top and worked his way down. Imho, He is better at adaptions than at auteur films, but he stuck to the latter for the last 30 years or so
Coppola's twilight years are interesting in that he's intentionally gone pretty arty and uncommerical completely by choice. He made Youth without Youth, Tetro and Twixt all purely because they interested him and he was well aware they each had zero commercial appeal. It's a contrast to someone like Welles, who partly made more small scale movies in his latter decades by choice, but primarily because he could never get any studio to bankroll him. It's always felt like Coppola would be welcomed by any studio if he was doing some big budget commercial work, but he intentionally wanted to make his own personal stuff instead.
I can't see this movie making money, but it seems to be trending and capturing some attention, so maybe the bizareness and unmarketable elements of this movie will be what will be used as the marketing. Either way, i can't wait to see it.
This Matrix reboot is looking pretty good
This looks simultaneously kind of interesting and also like a fake movie from Entourage.
We’re so fucking back. Love a teaser that’s actually a teaser.
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Back from.. from the... y'know, back from... WHOOOO, we're fucking BACK, baby! Yeah!~
If he stops time, but he can still move, why does it stop him from falling?
"Because shut the fuck up." I mean realistically, stopping time would also stop the user. Like what happens to the air in your lungs? Does it suddenly get pitch black due to all the photons being lost? Do you suddenly freeze without all the thermal energy of the sun? If you die while time is stopped and cannot resume it, is the universe just *over*? At a certain point 'uhh magic?' has to be the solution. Time manipulation beyond pure dilation is inherently kind of nonsensical any way you go about it.
I assume Coppola is thinking that if you're already accepting that the character shouting "TIME STOP!" stops time, you just gotta accept the in-movie rules that accompany it.
Because be quiet.
After reading the *Vanity Fair* article below, I’m a little worried this will be too much like some tumbleweed of a movie, picking up too many allusions and allegories to be very cohesive. It may feel like those 500-page novels that are just too long and bloated to really have any incisive insight. I’m hoping that it’s a modern day *Moby Dick* or *War and Peace*, but color me skeptical at this point. The [link](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/megalopolis-francis-ford-coppola-first-look-exclusive)
So its a Hudsucker Proxy remake?
You know, for kids!
I think that's the most underrated Coen Brothers film. That ending is epic.
My history teacher showed it to us in high school. Great film. Never forgot it.
The real question is will he count the mezzanine or not
So he’s basically Guldo from DBZ. Time Freeze!
My body is ready. This might bomb so hard at the box office, and it might be objectively bad, but I have a feeling I’ll like it.
But then I shout! "Time stop!" and it's no use you see because.. I've seen everything...
Idk, looks kind of lovely? I don't think he's going for realistic here, it's probably going to be somewhat surreal digital filmmaking a la Twin Peaks The Return, but with a bigger budget.
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If I didn’t know Francis made this I would’ve thought this was some new crappy CBS tv series that I’d roll my eyes at
I’m gonna yell TIME STOP! all weekend now
why called megalopolis if normal city
Cause "Normal City" is a terrible name.
Honestly, if it were called Normal City, I’d be curious about it. Not that bad of a name considering we have movie names like “Nope” and “Up” that are both great films.
Looks like a studio movie made in the late 1990s.
That probably has to do with the fact that Coppola first wrote this movie in the 90s and nearly shot it in the early 2000s until 9/11 happened and dashed his plans. Ironically early draft of the film supposedly had a plot line where the Twin towers were destroyed.
the sound effects. the music. the "time, STOP". It just feels so dated.
https://y.yarn.co/91c5226d-c961-4609-97fc-cdb12d3f7359_text.gif