Coppola Selects Citroën DS for Megalopolis Epic

The trailer is out for Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film and in it a Citroën DS is prominently featured in 2 scenes. No doubt it will be seen by the public in more when the 2h 18m IMAX sci-fi drama is released on September 27.

The city of New Rome is the main conflict between Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect in favor of a utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Catilina is granted a license by the federal government to demolish and rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia using Megalon, a material that can give him the power to control space and time. His nemesis, Cicero, remains committed to a regressive status quo. Torn between them is Franklyn’s socialite daughter and Cesar’s love interest Julia, who, tired of the influence she inherited, searches for her life’s meaning while struggling with her loyalty divided between her father and her beloved.

The film stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D. B. Sweeney, and Dustin Hoffman. Set in an imagined modern United States, it follows visionary architect Cesar Catilina (Driver) as he clashes with the corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Esposito) in determining how to rebuild the metropolis of New Rome after a devastating disaster. The film references the characters involved in the Catilinarian conspiracy of 63 BC, including Catiline and Cicero, in addition to Caesar.

Like Apocalypse Now, that had a Citroën 2CV blown-up on a bridge during a USA helicopter attack, Megalopolis also features a Citroën, in this instance Driver’s character is being driven around in a black DS Prestige (Henri Chapron limousine version with a division between the front and rear seats) with Laurence Fishburne behind the wheel.

In development for decades, Megalopolis came from Coppola’s desire to make a film drawing parallels between the fall of Rome and the future of the United States by setting the events of the Catilinarian conspiracy in modern New York City. He conceived the idea for the film in 1977 and actively started developing it in 1983 by assembling notes for a future script. Preparations for a film based around his initial concept came together in 1989 to be shot in Rome, but it was postponed after Coppola prioritized other projects to pay his debt to Hollywood after a string of box-office disappointments. Coppola revived the project in 2001, holding table reads with prominent actors in New York. After the September 11 attacks, an event that resembled the film’s plot and themes, Megalopolis was again abandoned.

Having become disheartened working for the studio system, Coppola soon after declared his intentions to self-finance the project if it ever came to fruition. Coppola announced his return to the film in 2019 and, two years after, sold a portion of his winery in California to spend $120 million of his own money to fund it. After a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, casting was underway by 2021.

Megalopolis was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered on May 16, 2024, and polarized critics. The film also screened at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9 and the Scotiabank Theatre Toronto on September 10 as part of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, in addition to the 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival on September 24. On September 23, the AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York hosted an advance screening as part of the New York Film Festival, including a half-hour Q&A with Coppola and guests Robert De Niro and Spike Lee that was broadcast live to 65 IMAX locations.

View the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU1QyAYa60g