We are five weeks away from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” hitting theaters, on September 27. Lionsgate is distributing the film with Coppola in charge of financing of the marketing.
Speaking of marketing, it’s been rather tame. It’s very hard to promote a film without a studio, that’s a given, and Coppola’s recent hiring of Utopia to help him out is a clear sign that he needs the help. According to Deadline, Utopia’s task is to “implement specialty marketing, word-of-mouth, and non-traditional theatrical distribution initiatives targeting moviegoers”.
I’m slightly worried. The below Twitter/X conversation tells me that the “Megalopolis” team will be heavily relying on the film’s eccentric nature. Notice, there’s a 7-month gap between both comments.
So, what is “Megalopolis” about? It’s complicated. There are so many plot lines jammed into this 135-minute epic that just a single viewing of Coppola’s film can feel damn-near overwhelming. Here’s a summation of what I gathered, based on my first watch at Cannes:
Adam Driver plays Caesar, who is a tortured architectural genius. Lawrence Fishburne, who plays his chauffeur, narrates the story with biblical and Roman-inspired quotes. “Megalopolis” is, at its core, a love story between Natalie Emmanuel’s Julia and Driver’s Caesar. She’s the daughter of his political rival (Giancarlo Esposito). Tensions arise with Caesar’s vision of rebuilding New Rome (which is basically New York City) into a self-sustaining utopia filled with high technological advancements. The mayor wants the status quo and believes the changes Caesar want to make will bring about chaos.
Meanwhile, Aubrey Plaza plays a rival love interest of Caesar’s and, I kid you not, her character’s name is Wow Platinum. She’s a promiscuous gold digger who gets very jealous when Julia enters the picture. Wow decides to scheme and take down Caesar with the help of wild playboy Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBoeuf, in drag). Jon Voight also shows up as billionaire Hamilton Crassus III, Clodio’s grandfather, who ends up marrying Wow — she plans to annul the prenup and then, obviously, kill him. That doesn’t seem to turn off Hamilton, who ends up showing her his massive erection.
I’ll be catching the film again at TIFF next month. They should have actually screened “Megalopolis” as a Midnight selection. The film has cult status written all over it, and I find that’s the type of audience the marketing should be aiming towards.
Of note, the official U.S. poster has been released for “Megalopolis” and I don’t believe it does Coppola, nor the film, any favors in luring audiences to see this one.
