MegalopolisIncludes an Interactive Portion with the Audience in Select Theaters. Here's What Happens

Mar. 15, 2025

Adam Driver inMegalopolis(2024).Photo:Courtesy of Lionsgate

Courtesy of Lionsgate

Megalopolisis breaking the fourth wall.

WhenFrancis Ford Coppola’s epic sci-fi drama premieres this week, it will include an interactive portion in select theaters where audiences can participate in a press-conference scene from the film, whereAdam Driver’s character Cesar Catalina is fielding off-camera reporter questions.

The experience includes a live person who gets up and asks the “reporter’s” question into a microphone set up somewhere in the theater, after which Driver answers as part of the movie. Examples of the interaction be seen inphotosandvideoson social media,

AsIndieWirenotes, the individual who was the live participant at theCannes Film Festivalscreening in May, whereMegalopolispremiered, was Coppola’s nephewJason Schwartzman, who also appears in the film.

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A Regal Cinemas theater.Jim Lane/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty

A film 40 years in the making for Coppola, 85,Megalopoliswas born from the writer-director’s desire to make a movie about a collapsing empire based on a moment from Roman history called the Catilinarian Conspiracy, in which Lucius Sergius Catilina was said to have planned a coup to overthrow Marcus Tullius Cicero, but failed and was publicly shamed.

The big-budget project takes pieces from this story, which has been highly contested throughout history, and places it in a glamorous, old-timey version of New York City.

The politician’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), on the other hand, isn’t sure how to feel or what to believe amid the strife. These dynamics play out over the two-hour-and-18-minute film, which leans heavily on the science-fiction genre and a strong historical influence.

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Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel inMegalopolis(2024).American Zoetrope / Megalopolis / Mihai Malaimare

American Zoetrope / Megalopolis / Mihai Malaimare

Aubrey Plaza,Shia LaBeouf,Dustin Hoffman,Jon VoightandLaurence Fishburneare also among the star-studded cast ofMegalopolis, which marks Coppola’s first film in 13 years.

Others who star includeKathryn Hunter,Grace VanderWaalandChloe Fineman, as well as Coppola’s sisterTalia Shireand granddaughterRomy Mars, whose mother is his daughterSofia Coppola.

Coppola has been working onMegalopolissince finishing his iconic 1979 war filmApocalypse Now. Over the years, he has talked about his passion project and how he even spent $120 million of his own funds to getMegalopolismade.

“It doesn’t matter … the money doesn’t matter,” he said during a Cannespress conferencein May. “What’s important are friends. Because a friend will never let you down; money may evaporate.”

Megalopolisis in theaters Friday, Sept. 27.

source: people.com