Director Francis Ford Coppola got politically charged while discussing his new film “Megalopolis” on Monday, suggesting that the upcoming presidential election could mirror the fall of the Roman Empire.
During the conversation, which took place as part of the New York Film Festival and was also streamed to 65 theaters across the U.S. and Canada in partnership with IMAX, Coppola spoke about the long journey he and Robert De Niro and Spike Lee took to make “this Roman epic set in modern-day America.”
The film depicts the conflict between Cesar (Adam Driver), a brilliant artist trying to leap into a utopian future, and his rival Mayor Franklin Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who clings to the regressive status quo.
“People always asked me, ‘Why would you want to make a movie about America as Rome?’ Today, America is Rome, and for the same reason that Rome lost its republic and got an emperor, America is going to experience the same thing. It was very prescient to make a movie about America as Rome, because in a few months Rome will fall,” Coppola asserted. “And the reason is the same. Rome was very prosperous at the time, Rome was making a lot of money, and the senators were actually very interested in their own power and wealth, and they weren’t running the country. The same thing is happening here. Our senators and congressmen are all wealthy, and they’re manipulating their own power rather than running the country, and we’re in danger of losing our country.”
Referring to Donald Trump’s comments about immigration during a recent debate, Lee replied with a straight face: “Did they eat cats and dogs in Rome?”
Coppola also explained, “I purposely brought together people with opposing views to make this movie, which means there are actors in the movie who voted differently, there are actors who got canceled… and then we’re all in the movie, having fun working creatively together,” seemingly referring to his co-stars Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman.
“I didn’t want people to say, ‘Oh, this is some kind of woke movie, it’s just political.’ I thought we were above politics in making the movie, but we all still like each other and we all came together and made this movie,” he continued. “So I’m hopeful that even with people who don’t agree with us, we can work together to achieve higher goals.” The filmmaker added that the film specifically invites audiences to debate about the future, “and I want everyone to be a part of that debate, and I want to make sure that no questions are allowed.”
During the conversation, the group touched on how each member met, Coppola selling his family’s wine company to self-finance the film, and his insistence on calling The Godfather sequel The Godfather Part II. “I’m the idiot who started this whole thing of putting numbers after movies, so I apologize to you guys,” he said.
Lee revealed that he screened “Megalopolis” for students at New York University and said of the film, “My brother continues to amaze me with his fearless spirit, his willingness to do whatever it takes to get things done.”
De Niro continued the political theme of the evening, noting that he read through the script for the film with Paul Newman and Uma Thurman decades ago, when Coppola was making another version of the movie.
“I’m concerned. I saw that in Francis’ film, the parallels and all that,” he told the crowd. “For me, it’s not over until it’s over. We have to work tooth and nail to defeat the Republican Party. Those Republicans are not real Republicans. Defeat Trump. That’s it. We can’t have someone like this running this country. We have to all go vote and make it clear what kind of country America is.”
Coppola briefly mentioned that he and Trump attended military academy together, saying, “I was poor so I played tuba in the military band, whereas he was rich so he was still at headquarters keeping the lights on after ‘Taps,'” while De Niro added, “Imagine Donald Trump directing this movie… He wants to destroy the country, so he can’t do this movie. He can’t do anything with structure.”
“Megalopolis” hits theaters on Friday.
