francis ford coppola

Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project Megalopolis is a futuristic fable about the downfall of the American Empire. The 85 year-old auteur envisioned the dystopian concept 40 years ago, writing, revising and re-casting it, spending $120 million to make it, using funds he’d made from Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, etc. and his California wine business. Archaic references to the fall of Rome are everywhere, along with Shakespearean dialogue, peppered with quotes from Greek/Roman/Sapphic poets. Adam Driver even delivers Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be…” soliloquy in its entirety.