Francis Ford Coppola has made 'The Godfather' films, 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Conversation,' but he calls new film 'Megalopolis' the 'best work I've ever had the privilege to preside over.'
The trailer for legendary director Francis Ford Coppola's "Megalopolis" debuted Monday and intrigue continues to grow as the nearly 2-minute teaser inches closer to one million views on YouTube.
Set to premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, Coppola's self-funded "Megalopolis" is a "Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America," according to the movie's bio on the film festival's website. Cannes, which kicked off Tuesday, runs to May 25.
"The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare," the bio says. "Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero, the mayor's daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves."
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In the caption for the trailer on YouTube, Coppola said, "Our new film MEGALOPOLIS is the best work I've ever had the privilege to preside over." As of Tuesday afternoon, the trailer has already amassed nearly 1 million views on YouTube.
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Coppola is famously known for directing the classic "Godfather" series featuring the late Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone.
Francis Ford Coppola rewrote 'Megalopolis' 300 times
Coppa told Vanity Fair in April that he rewrote "Megalopolis" 300 times, "hoping each rewrite would improve it, if only a half percent better." The Oscar-winning director also said he paid for the project's $120 million budget, the outlet reported.
"The seeds for 'Megalopolis' were planted when as a kid I saw H.G. Wells's 'Things to Come,'" Coppola said in a written statement to Vanity Fair. "This 1930s Korda classic is about building the world of tomorrow, and has always been with me, first as the 'boy scientist' I was and later as a filmmaker."
Before deciding on the Roman epic, Coppola said in the statement, "I wasn't really working on this screenplay for 40 years as I often see written, but rather I was collecting notes and clippings for a scrapbook of things I found interesting for some future screenplay, or examples of political cartoons or different historical subjects," Vanity Fair reported.
Coppola also shared his hopes for "Megalopolis" after its Cannes debut.
"It's my dream that 'Megalopolis' will become a New Year's Eve perennial favorite, with audiences discussing afterwards not their new diets or resolutions not to smoke, but rather this simple question: 'Is the society in which we live the only one available to us?'"
