Adam Driver Leads Starry Trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's Big-Budget Sci-Fi EpicMegalopolis

Mar. 15, 2025

Adam DriverisFrancis Ford Coppola’s latest muse.

In the writer-director’s upcoming sci-fi dramaMegalopolis, the actor, 40, plays an idealistic architect looking to rebuild a dystopian city. As a newly released trailer proves, it’s the first sci-fi-infused story from theOscar-winningGodfatherfilmmaker, 85.

The movie features an all-star cast, includingAubrey Plaza,Laurence Fishburne,Jon Voight,Grace VanderWaal,Shia LaBeoufandDustin Hoffman.

“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 synopsis continues.

It concludes, “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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Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel inMegalopolis(2024).American Zoetrope / Megalopolis / Mihai Malaimare

American Zoetrope / Megalopolis / Mihai Malaimare

Coppola’s sisterTalia Shire, plus her sonJason Schwartzman, also star in what theApocalypse Nowfilmmaker has indicated is a deeply personal project in the works for years.

“The seeds forMegalopoliswere planted when as a kid I saw H.G. Wells’sThings to Come,” Coppola said in an April statement toVanity 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.”

He continued, “As I have made many films of many different subjects and in many different styles, I hoped for a project later in life when I might better understandwhatmy personal style was … I must have rewritten it 300 times, hoping each rewrite would improve it, if only a half percent better.”

In 2022, Coppola revealed he intended to make the movie with$120 million of his own money.

“The more personal I make it, and the more like a dream in me that I do it, the harder it will be to finance," he toldGQat the time.

Megalopolispremiered in competitionat the 77thCannes Film Festivalon May 16, where it was nominated for the event’s top prize: the Palme d’Or. (It lost to the Sean Baker dramedyAnora.)

In anInstagram postpublished on April 30, Coppola and Emmanuel, 35, shared the “first official image” of their film, per the director’s caption.

“It brings me joy to share a glimpse of what is to come," the director wrote.

Megalopolisis in theaters Sept. 27.

source: people.com