The first official trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's utopian science-fiction epic opens with a number of negative quotes from film critics of Coppola's work over the past 5 decades, describing the directors previous filmography as "sloppy", "self-indulgent" and "diminished by its artsiness".
And following the recent wave of negative reviews for 'Megalopolis' following it's limited festival run, a clear and blatant attempt at stating to audience members that Coppola is a filmmaker way ahead of his time is bold to say the least.
"True genius is often misunderstood" are the words spoken by Laurence Fishburne as the trailer previews a small handful of negative comments towards now-iconic movies such as 'The Godfather', 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Dracula'. And in 50 years time we all could very well be singing the praises of Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' once us audience members have finally caught up with him and his "true genius".
'Megalopolis' stars Adam Driver as genius artist, Cesar, who has fallen ill of the ways in which society tend to go about their every day lifestyles and seeks to take leap into a utopian, idealistic future. All is well until Mayor Franklin Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) attempts to stand in his way and see society remain the way it is.
Integrating the films poor reputation is one intriguing and effective way of marketing the movie, but another would be to make a fuss about the all-star cast included on the payroll for this production. Huge names of old and modern such as Driver himself, Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman are all included as a-list names on screen in this film.
It goes without saying that the marketing team for this movie may very well have a strong argument in defending the film. A number of pictures, directed by Coppola, that are now considered cinematic masterpieces were once compared to the lowest end of productions within the industry at the time.
The purest example of this would be 'The Godfather' which released in 1972 and caused a huge divide in opinion as to whether its contents had any genuine cinematic quality to them or not. Nowadays, you'll struggle to find a person that doesn't view 'The Godfather' as one of the best movies of all time.
The fact that Coppola was willing to spend well over $100million out of his own pockets to see this film be made should surely be enough ammunition to light a fire in the curious minds of filmlovers everywhere and take the time to see whether this film can be compared to some of the directors best pieces of work over the years.
Well, on September 27th you'll certainly have the opportunity to do so.
Click here to see the newest trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis'.
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