Francis Coppola Draws Robert De Niro, Spike Lee For NYFF Panel Prior To IMAX Premiere Of ‘Megalopolis’

EXCLUSIVE: When Francis Ford Coppola sits for a conversation about his new film Megalopolis before it plays the New York Film Festival on Monday, September 23, the master filmmaker will be interrogated by two Gotham film fixtures. That will be Robert De Niro, whom Coppola directed to his first Academy Award in The Godfather Part II, and Spike Lee, a lifelong admirer of Coppola who was among the first to see 30 minutes of Megalopolis.

The trio will take part in a conversation moderated by NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim, in an evening the festival is calling an IMAX Live presentation, Megalopolis: The Ultimate IMAX Experience. The studio is working on a couple other big names to give Coppola a fitting tribute. Doesn’t Al Pacino live in New York, for instance?

The discussion will center around Coppola’s influence and how his films transcend art form (acting, filmmaking, music, and more), with Megalopolis being his opus. 

The 62nd New York Film Festival, IMAX, and Lionsgate awhile ago announced the special advance screening of NYFF62 Special Event selection to take place Monday at the AMC Lincoln Square, 1998 Broadway. The event will be live streamed to audiences in 66 participating IMAX theaters in cities across the U.S., bringing this special conversation to fans nationwide, followed by an advance screening of the film. The event begins 8:30 PM EST/5:30 PM PST. Megalopolis opens in theaters by Lionsgate on September 27, 2024.

Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter, and Dustin Hoffman star in the film. Megalopolis is a Roman epic set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves. Megalopolis is produced by Barry Hirsch, Fred Roos, and Michael Bederman.