On paper, Megalopolis sounds like a slam dunk. One of the most celebrated directors of the last 50 years makes a high-concept, sci-fi epic that stars some of the hottest actors of the last two decades.
But, in reality, the making of this has been a 40-year nightmare for the veteran director who put millions of his own money to bring the film to cinemas.
And it only just made it.
The sprawling epic had its Cannes debut on Thursday, with reactions coming in blindingly hot. Here's what you need to know before Megalopolis comes to a cinema near you (maybe).
What is Megalopolis about?
Set in a futuristic metropolis called New Rome, the film focuses on protagonist Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver), an architect who also has the power to control time (?).
Cesar is hell-bent on restoring New Rome to its former glory, but first he has to get past the crusty old dean, I mean Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who enjoys being in charge of the oppressive society and would like it to stay the same, TYVM.
Caught in the middle is the mayor's party-girl daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who gets sucked into Caesar's vortex.
Revolving around them is a cast of famous actors with audacious character names. Parks and Recreation's Aubrey Plaza plays gold-digging newscaster Wow Platinum, with Jon Voight as her elderly lover Hamilton Crassus III, Shia LaBeouf is Cicero's meddling cousin Clodio Pulcher. Even America's Got Talent wunderkind Grace VanderWaal shows up to embody teen pop star Vesta Sweetwater.
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Forty years to Megalopolis
Although Coppola conceived the idea for Megalopolis around the time he was wrapping 1979's Apocalypse Now, it wasn't until 1983 that the director shared, in an interview with FilmComment, that he already had 400 pages of script notes.
At the time, Coppola described a story similar to the one that ended up at Cannes: an ambitious fable based on a period in Roman history.
But back then the now-revered director was less of a sure bet; especially after his Apocalypse Now follow-up — a romantic musical called One for the Heart — flopped spectacularly on a bloated $US23 million budget.
After finishing The Godfather Part III in 1991, Coppola was determined to start production on Megalopolis within the year, despite the lack of finished script and no production money. Knowing he would make more money from upcoming projects, he said he would be able to pursue Megalopolis to "no earlier than 1996".
Coppola got to the table-read stage in 2001, but then the September 11 attacks happened and he became concerned about how people would react to the film.
"It made it really pretty tough… a movie about the aspiration of utopia with New York as a main character and then all of a sudden you couldn't write about New York without just dealing with what happened and the implications of what happened," he said in 2007.
By 2009 it seemed as if he had cooled on Megalopolis completely.
"I feel pleased to have written something, and then I'm done with it and I want to go on and write something else," he told Movieline.
"Some day, I'll read what I had on Megalopolis and maybe I'll think different of it, but it's also a movie that costs a lot of money to make and there's not a patron out there."
In production but not out of the woods
It wasn't until 2019, on the eve of Coppola's 80th birthday, that he announced he was returning to Megalopolis, and that he might be eyeing Jude Law to star.
By 2021, big names like Cate Blanchett and Zendaya were flying around the project thick and fast.
Cashed up from the recent sales of part of his winery operation, Coppola finally had the personal funds to make his vision a reality — and not a moment too soon, with the budget ballooning to $US100 million by May 2022.
Filming started in November 2022, with Kathryn Hunter, Aubrey Plaza, James Remar, Jason Schwartzman now added to the cast. But a month in, Coppola had fired almost his entire visual effects team and had forked out another $US20 million ($30 million) of his own money, taking the total budget to $US120 million($180 million).
Coppola rang in 2023 by assuring the press that, while there had been some unrest on set, everything was going swimmingly.
"I love my cast, I love what I'm getting each day, I am on schedule and on budget, and that's what is important to me," he told Deadline in January 2023.
In April of this year, we got our first look at the film, as Coppola dedicated his labour of love to his wife of 60 years, Elenore, who died on April 12.
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But Megalopolis was still without a distributor — major studios baulked at the film's outlandishness and smaller outlets were unable to scrape together the $US100 million ($150 million) marketing budget Coppola was after.
It was just five days before its Cannes premiere that Megalopolis sold to five independent European distributors in Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the UK.
There are whispers that Megalopolis is headed for 20 select IMAX theatres in the US in September, but there's currently no confirmation of when/if it will be distributed globally.
How did the Cannes premiere go down?
Coppola received a seven-minute standing ovation (which is either an honour or a little on the short side, depending on who you ask) after Megalopolis premiered at the renowned French festival.
"Thank you all so much — it is impossible to find words how I feel," the 85-year-old said before introducing his family members present at the screening.
"We are all one human family, We should pledge allegiance to our entire families and this beautiful home earth we have. It is my wish that children should inherit a beautiful world from us."
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The Cannes screening also confirmed the widely speculated rumour that at one point in the two-hour film, the actors on screen interact with a real life actor that appears on stage from the wings.
What are the critics saying?
So far, Megalopolis is getting as wide a range of reactions as possible for a film.
The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gives it two stars, calling it "megabloated" and "megaboring". "Flashes of humour cannot rescue this conspiracy thriller from awful acting and dull effects," Bradshaw continues.
Vulture's Bilge Ebiri praises the films' moments of "dazzling invention" but says it's drawn back by subsequent scenes that feel "rushed, undernourished, and underpopulated"."
"Megalopolis might be the craziest thing I've ever seen. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy every single batsh*t second of it," Ebiri said.
Deadline's Damon Wayes conceded that Megalopolis was "unruly, exaggerated and drawn to pretension like a moth to a flame" but that it also exists as "a pretty stunning achievement".
"[It's] the work of a master artist who has taken to Imax like Caravaggio to canvas. It is a true modern masterwork of the kind that outrages with its sheer audacity."
Few critics have addressed the parallels between Megalopolis' 2024 Cannes reception and Apocalypse Now's 1979 release.
The latter attracted similarly crushing reviews, only to go on and pick up the Palme d'Or (Cannes' highest prize), eight Oscar nominations and two wins at the 52nd Academy Awards.
Only time will tell how Megalopolis will receive the same treatment.
