![F#A#00, fka @coopercooperco Saying a digital effect "could've been done in ten minutes" is real bozo speak for "I have no clue how long digital effects take or how they work." • Steven Sheil @SSheil May 14 Article in The Guardian about problems on set with Megalopolis. I (obviously) haven't seen it yet, but complaining that Coppola wanted to do an effect in- camera rather than digitally, and spent half a day rather than '10 minutes' seems wrong-headed - it's a creative preference. Adam Driver's first day on set was particularly memorable, a source suggests. One aspect of the story involves Driver's character's body fusing with some futuristic organic material. Rather than using digital techniques, Coppola wanted to achieve the effect through old-school methods, using projectors and mirrors, much as he had done on Dracula, 30 years earlier. “That's great, except nobody can move," says the crew member. “So they basically strapped Adam Driver into a chair for six hours, and they literally took a $100 projector and projected an image on the side of his head. I'm all for experimentation, but this is really what you want to do the first day with your $10m actor?" The effect would have been quick and easy to create digitally, they say. “So he [Coppola] spends literally half of a day on what could have been done in 10 minutes." • 9:23 AM May 14, 2024 134.3K Views](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/819/222/397.png "Megalopolis (2024)")
Megalopolis (2024)
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About
Megalopolis is a science fiction drama written, directed, and financed by American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who has been developing the concept since 1983, and has invested $120 million of his own money to make the film. The film is set in a decaying metropolis called New Rome, where Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) butts heads with corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) as he attempts to revamp the city into a sustainable utopia. The film received mixed reviews from critics after its first screening at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, sparking discussions and memes.
Origin
Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis has been in development since 1983 and was conceived by Coppola in 1977. After multiple delays and cancellations in the following decades, Coppola invested $120 million of his own money to jumpstart the film's production in 2019. Filming took place between November 2022 and March 2023.
Francis Ford Coppola released a "first look" and a teaser trailer for the film on his own YouTube[1][2] channel on May 4th and May 14th, 2024 (seen below).
The film follows Cesar Catilina, an ambitious architect played by Adam Driver, as he attempts to revitalize the decaying city of New Rome, which is headed by the corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito.
Spread
The "first look" trailer was shared to Reddit's /r/movies on May 4th, 2024, where it gathered over 4,000 upvotes.[7]
Discussions about Megalopolis spread online in the weeks leading up to its debut at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, with a particular focus being drawn to Coppola's supposedly erratic filmmaking practices. On May 14th, 2024 an excerpt from an article in The Guardian made the rounds on X,[3] with a crew member recanting Coppola's insistence on using physical effects for a scene that could have been completed much quicker in post.
![F#A#00, fka @coopercooperco Saying a digital effect "could've been done in ten minutes" is real bozo speak for "I have no clue how long digital effects take or how they work." • Steven Sheil @SSheil May 14 Article in The Guardian about problems on set with Megalopolis. I (obviously) haven't seen it yet, but complaining that Coppola wanted to do an effect in- camera rather than digitally, and spent half a day rather than '10 minutes' seems wrong-headed - it's a creative preference. Adam Driver's first day on set was particularly memorable, a source suggests. One aspect of the story involves Driver's character's body fusing with some futuristic organic material. Rather than using digital techniques, Coppola wanted to achieve the effect through old-school methods, using projectors and mirrors, much as he had done on Dracula, 30 years earlier. “That's great, except nobody can move," says the crew member. “So they basically strapped Adam Driver into a chair for six hours, and they literally took a $100 projector and projected an image on the side of his head. I'm all for experimentation, but this is really what you want to do the first day with your $10m actor?" The effect would have been quick and easy to create digitally, they say. “So he [Coppola] spends literally half of a day on what could have been done in 10 minutes." • 9:23 AM May 14, 2024 134.3K Views](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/819/222/397.png "Megalopolis (2024)")
On May 16th, 2024, the film premiered at the 77th Film Festival in Cannes, where it was received with a 7-minute standing ovation as well as some booing.[4]
Memes about the film began making the rounds online soon after the film's release on May 16th, with X[5] user @collateral2004 joking about a segment in the film where a person breaks the fourth wall by speaking to Driver's on-screen character from the movie theater where the film is being screened (seen below, left).
Also on May 16th, the X[6] account @LeCinephiles posted a Welcome Back meme comparing Megalopolis to Babylon (2022), a film that had also received mixed reviews from critics. The post gathered over 9,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).
False Quotes Trailer Controversy
On August 21st, 2024, Lionsgate posted a trailer for Megalopolis that opened with quotes from movie critics panning some of Coppola's older classic films, including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. It was quickly discovered that the quotes were not genuine, and Lionsgate pulled the trailer. It is suspected the fake quotes were generated by ChatGPT.
Various Examples
Search Interest
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External References
[1] YouTube – Francis Ford Coppola
[2] YouTube – Francis Ford Coppola
[3] X – coopercooperco
[4] Bloomberg – Megalopolis
[5] X – collateral2004
[6] X – LeCinephiles
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Top Comments
Chris the Lovable Jerk
May 18, 2024 at 12:24PM EDT
Chris the Lovable Jerk
Sep 29, 2024 at 09:23PM EDT in reply to