MOVIE NEWS – Adam Driver compared Megalopolis to Star Wars: “We were rebelling!”

As Kylo Ren, Adam Driver may have trampled the Rebellion in the Star Wars universe, but as the protagonist of Megalopolis, he rebels against the Hollywood industrial system with the help of Francis Ford Coppola. Driver joins the cast of “cancelled” guest stars in Coppola’s latest film, including Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel and Shia LaBeouf. Although the actor has already worked on several big studio blockbusters, he recently admitted that his time with Megalopolis was his favourite because there was no corporate control.

Speaking to Discussing Film, Adam Driver explained why he loved working on Coppola’s self-funded Megalopolis so much. The actor said that since Coppola financed the project with his own capital, there were no producers trying to steer the film in the direction a major studio wanted. Unlike when he was working on Star Wars. He explained:

“Because [Francis Ford Coppola] was paying for it, there is just immediacy and you didn’t have to worry about people making decisions – this is not unique to Star Wars – this is, kind of, bigger budget movies where a lot of money is at stake. There were no producers in the way. There was no, somebody standing over a shoulder trying to nudge him in a direction where they thought that the movie should be.”

“It was a direct conversation that you were having with Francis.”

Driver described Megalopolis as “one of the best shooting experiences I ever had.” It’s incredibly rare for a $100 million+ movie to be made without corporate oversight. Very few filmmakers have the ability or willingness to commit that kind of capital to a single film. However, according to Adam Driver, this allowed Coppola and the film’s cast and crew to share a cathartic sense of rebellion. He explained:

“It felt like we were rebelling against something. And I feel like you can feel it in the film. I don’t have a lot of references that I can place where Megalopolis is like this other film. To make something that’s singular [is] incredibly hard to do at that scale, that I don’t know will be done again.”

The “rebellion” of Adam Driver and his companions may disappoint at the box office

Rebellion is a nice thing and it’s heartwarming to read that the actors had a good time on set. At the same time, it is not by chance that producers work on films of this scale and budget. Directors tend to exaggerate and do not always follow the same aspects as the audience. Therefore, it is a dangerous undertaking to make a purely directorial blockbuster.

It was a crazy risk for Francis Ford Coppola to finance the production of Megalopolis entirely on his own. Unfortunately, it looks like he lost. Megalopolis was released last week – we wrote about it here – and the numbers of the opening weekend fell short of the film’s already disappointing predictions: the film opened with 4 million dollars at the American box office.

While almost everyone reading this can only dream of $4 million (ourselves included), that amount barely covers the catering budget for a Hollywood blockbuster. Given the film’s checkered reception online, Megalopolis is unlikely to fare better in the coming weeks. However, the project may gain redemption when it enters the world of steaming in the near future.

Source: X

Adam Driver tells us the difference between filming blockbusters like The Sequel Trilogy and ‘MEGALOPOLIS’:

“There was no producers in the way, there was no one standing over Francis’ shoulder trying to nudge him… it was one of the best shooting experiences I’ve ever had” pic.twitter.com/oawKYkbOux

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 29, 2024