Last year saw Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon get an IMAX release. Now another iconic filmmaker’s new movie will screen on the premium format.
It had been reported earlier that Francis Ford Coppola’s newest movie, Megalopolis, was going to be a tricky sell for distributors because, even though there is a definite commercial appeal, there was also an artsy quality to it that might make it seem less accessible to sell to general audiences. However, as the first clip and the teaser trailer have shown, the new film from the Apocalypse Now director has stunningly dynamic cinematography and some very cinematic special effects sequences. It has the look of a grand sci-fi epic, and The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that it will be getting the treatment of a grand cinema epic as the film will be screening in IMAX globally.
IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond addressed the press Thursday as Cannes about Megalopolis. He stated, “The film is going to get an IMAX release. One of the things that we pride ourselves on is being filmmaker-friendly. So we’ve committed to Francis to do a global Imax release.” According to THR, Gelford also said “that he met with Coppola in Cannes and that IMAX will probably wait to see who will distribute the film in the U.S. and when before dating its Imax release. The film has already sold to multiple international territories.”
The teaser trailer featured a tag at the end that read, “Experience it in IMAX.” This came after amazing images of a rebuilt New York that mixes in traditional Roman imagery like a chariot race and Greco-Roman Wrestling taking place at Madison Square Garden. The teaser clip that would release before the trailer featured a sequence of Adam Driver’s character on top of the Empire State Building and stopping time.
Here is the official plot of Coppola’s Megalopolis: “Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.”
Coppola, who is renowned for his work on The Godfather series, Apocalypse Now and The Conversation has made the claim, “Our new film MEGALOPOLIS is the best work I’ve ever had the privilege to preside over.”
