'Has this guy ever made a movie before?' Coppola's battle to film Megalopolis | Hacker News Reader

'Has this guy ever made a movie before?' Coppola's battle to film Megalopolis

theguardian.com

50 pointsbelter30 comments

> Coppola has been trying to make this movie for more than 40 years, during which the project has gone through innumerable rewrites, delays and false starts. It exists now only because he sold part of his successful winery estate to finance the movie when no one else would.

After reading that, I definitely want to see it!

>It exists now only because he sold part of his successful winery estate to finance the movie when no one else would.

Coppola pumped more than $120 million of his own money into the movie's production. It's the mother of all passion projects.

This looks incredible: https://youtu.be/RU1QyAYa60g?si=o3tcQ2nYgebwgOrE

I don't get it at all. There's some meteorites and then... theater? What is this movie about?

From the article, presumably the partial destruction of New York and subsequent political struggle over how to rebuild, as metaphor for modern American democracy in light of the late Roman Republic / early Empire.

Or, in other words, what it's about probably depends on whether or not someone classifies Apocalypse Now as a movie about the Vietnam War.

That actually sounds really interesting, but I would never have gotten that from the trailer lol. Thanks for the explanation.

"Is this society, is this way we're living, the only one that's available to us?"

In the end, some movies get great press and reviews, and no one cares; some get shitty press and horrible reviews, and it wins the box office. An artist creates art, and everyone else then gets to decide whether they like it or not. You never know until it comes out.

Wow wine guy makes a cool looking movie. Given the investment I’ll definitely see it! The trailer looks really interesting and would be interested in future films from this person if this one is good.

I guess this is one way to find out Jon Voight is still alive.

ok it looks interesting

A movie about an architect redesigning a city. The city it basically new york, which the director believes is the center of the world. The love interest is the mayor's daughter. Financed with proceeds from the sale of the director's winery. This isn't the mud and rain of movies like Apocalypse Now. This reeks of the money and elitisms of Battlefield Earth or Batman Forever.

> This isn't the mud and rain of movies like Apocalypse Now. This reeks of the money and elitisms of Battlefield Earth or Batman Forever.

This is bloody brilliant and ranks among the best HN comments I’ve ever encountered. It’s pure poetry and ends with the words “Batman Forever”, a staggering creative achievement.

I dunno, referencing Roger Christian and Joel Schumacher in relation to Francis Ford Coppola makes me question someone's film bona fides.

> The city it basically new york, which the director believes is the center of the world.

To be fair, this seems like a commonly shared belief among many real-world New York City residents as well.

For those that haven't seen it, there's a a great New Yorker cover called "View of the World from 9th Avenue" that pokes fun at this. Here's a close-up of the image: https://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/...

And an article about it: https://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/essay/view-of-the-world-...

And there's been many takes on it I think.

I recall seeing one for L.A., back in 1980ish.

It is also a hollywood trope. Sometimes it gets a rebrand (Gothem, Metropolis) but New York is often the stand-in city to represent the rest of the planet in the big battle (Ghostbusters).

Probably due to its outlandish economic power and cultural projection all over the world, i.e. because it is "the center of the world" insofar as the phrase means anything when applied to a city.

(Yes I am an NYC resident, but it's not my perception of the city that makes it what it is on the international stage)

> A movie about an architect redesigning a city.

This seems like a wild understatement, based on the trailer.

Well sure, clearly this isn't a movie about the intricacies of architectural design, but the selection of that job descriptor for the main character is very telling.

Architects are imagination people who see a better world. They design the building, they don't put it up themselves. They are ambitious leaders trying to realize their own visions. They are also not rich enough to do it on their own, else they would be called something else a la Tony Stark. So they must struggle to acquire money/power from someone else. Enter the love interest, the daughter of the mayor. The mayor is the old power structure, the architect the new young guy with vision. And the daughter joins those two world. This is not an ambitious premise for a movie. I'm sure it will have excellent cinematography.

I don’t know, Coppola selling his winery to finance the movie sounds reminiscent to the Apocalypse Now production to me [1].

[1] https://youtu.be/pFYzVsrrPjE?feature=shared

So will either be inadvertently hilarious or high camp? I wasn't going to watch Megalopolis, but now I'm really looking forward to it!

> A movie about an architect redesigning a city.

It's a movie about the Catilinarian conspiracy:

> An accident destroys a decaying New York City-like metropolis. Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect with the power to control time, aims to rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia, but is opposed by corrupt mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo. Torn between them is Franklyn's socialite daughter, Julia, who, tired of the influence she inherited, searches for her life's meaning.[4][5][6]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalopolis_(film)

> The Catilinarian conspiracy, sometimes Second Catilinarian conspiracy, was an attempted coup d'état by Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline) to overthrow the Roman consuls of 63 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida – and forcibly assume control of the state in their stead.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catilinarian_conspiracy

Movies are not their scripts or their directors. Movies are products of a complex situation, a confluence of influences. Those influences bleed into the film. A movie about soldiers filmed in a rain-soaked jungle will itself drip with the suffering that went in its creation. A movie filmed about a new york architect, filmed in a New York nightclub, with a cast of Hollywood socialites ... that's how you get Batman Forever. I doubt this movie will ring true with the bulk of audiences.

>I doubt this movie will ring true with the bulk of audiences.

This should be the least important quality of a film, and ironic that you mention this quality along with Batman Forever, which did ring true with the bulk of audiences and was Warner Bros. most successful film for six years until Harry Potter was released.

I sincerely can't tell if you mentioned this to rebut or reinforce the elitism critique. I see an obscure Roman Empire historical allegory about a master builder elite fighting old power elite. Character development about elite daughter's ennui for her inherited wealth and influence.

I see why HN types might love it, but HN types are literally the elite in our society too.

> I see why HN types might love it, but HN types are literally the elite in our society too.

Given it's about the Roman Empire/Republic… "How often do men think about ancient Rome? Quite frequently, it seems.":

* https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/09/14/roman-em...

* https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-roman-empire-tiktok-trend-w...

Besides, it stars Kylo Ren.

Oh snap. You made my oatmeal and coffee taste like a million bucks. Thanks. I’m going to be strutting around in my elite pants all day.

You asked HN for a payments provider / accounting platform. You're in the global top 1%.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com