25/32
It’s just the same footage flipped and slightly tilted
Line of Events
The city of New Rome is faced with the duel between Caesar Catiline, a brilliant artist who is an advocate of a utopian future, and greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, with her loyalties torn between her father and her lover. Francis Ford Coppola wrote the script in the early 1980s, but the film was put on the back burner partly due to his financial debts. Pre-production finally began in 2001 after shooting 30 hours of second unit footage and holding a table read with Paul Newman, Uma Thurman, Robert De Niro, James Gandolfini, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Edie Falco and Kevin Spacey, but the project was scrapped after the 9/11 attacks, because a scene in the script (page 166) “predicted” the attacks. Coppola completely dropped out of the project in 2007 and didn’t start developing it again until 2019. The security video of Cicero entering Ceasars office is supposed to be two different cameras, as indicated by the small text in the top left corner.
You can see every penny on screen
Hamilton Crassus III: What Do You Think About This Boner I Have? The “Ultimate IMAX Experience” version of the film features a live actor asking questions during the filmed press conference. Referenced on The John Campea Show: Adam Driver to Lead Francis Ford Coppola’s New Film Megalopolis (2022). My Promise Written by Grace VanderWaal Performed by Grace VanderWaal Courtesy of Columbia Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment Produced and orchestrated by Kris Kukul. That’s what’s so great about Francis Ford Coppola’s latest, and possibly final, film. Between the cast, the costumes, and the set design, which reimagines New York City as the New Rome, you can see it all.
And let’s not forget the Marcus Aurelius quotes
The only question this raises is why 42nd Street, from Third Avenue to Times Square, was not affected, and what about the movie theaters from Seventh to Eighth Avenues. That said, it’s natural to be skeptical of what is essentially an admiration biopic for Robert Moses. Especially when it’s ostensibly written by Ayn Rand as a response to METROPOLIS and then handed over to Abel Gance after convincing him he’s making a movie about Julius Caesar rather than Napoleon. It is, in short, a very erudite film. To appreciate the details, you have to have read a lot of Roman history, seen a lot of silent films, and be familiar with New York City in the second half of the 20th century, including the flight of the middle and upper classes from the 1950s to the 1980s. Despite the vagaries of my upbringing and a chaotic process of self-education, I can affirm these things.
The performances are fine
So what do I think? I am left wondering, though, as I am with so many films these days, who Coppola made this film for. He is said to have spent about $140 million of his own money on this film. The general rule is that a film has to gross about twice its cost of production to break even. I don’t see a large enough audience for this to yield $300,000,000 in ticket and ancillary rights. It’s simply too long, a shaggy dog story about love and artistic vision being more important than anything else.
I don’t think this film will ruin it, either
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time Coppola let his artistic ambitions run wild; while APOCALYPSE NOW is claimed to have eventually made its money back, I have my doubts about that if you add in the interest costs. Certainly, ONE FROM THE HEART was a disaster, and he spent a couple of decades making enjoyable commercial films from other sources to tide him over, and let wineries and restaurants make him money. There are certainly enough movie fans out there that the net loss from this is bearable. All of which goes a long way to answering my question about who Coppola was targeting.