What did they anticipate?
The crew behind Monday’s “Megalopolis” IMAX screening invited two of Hollywood’s greatest Trump critics to have a good time the movie’s Sept. 27 launch.
Francis Ford Coppola’s dream mission arrives with loads of dangerous buzz, from significantly adverse opinions to press stories suggesting the director misbehaved on the set. (Coppola is suing Selection about mentioned allegations).
Monday provided Coppola the prospect to alter the dialog. He appeared through livestream to share the journey behind “Megalopolis” and what the movie means to him.
And us.
He was joined by Robert De Niro and Spike Lee, outdated trade buddies who shared tales of their first conferences At the side of the 62nd New York Movie Competition.
Dennis Lim, inventive director of NYFF, moderated the stay occasion.
The Q&A, proven to dozens of theaters throughout the nation earlier than the film, began with Coppola, Lee and De Niro recalling their early days in Hollywood. Lee unofficially kicked off the occasion’s partisan nature with a reference to “consuming cats and canines.”
The quip recalled allegations that Haitian immigrants are doing simply that within the small city of Springfield, Ohio.
That was simply the progressive appetizer.
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Later, the occasion’s moderator requested the panel if they’d optimism for Hollywood’s future. The trade has been racked with seismic change in recent times, from the pandemic’s fallout to the rise of streaming platforms.
Living proof: One among Hollywood’s legendary administrators needed to foot the tab for “Megalopolis.” Coppola shared how he leveraged one in all his wine companies to defray the movie’s appreciable prices.
De Niro and Lee used the “future” query as an invite to trash Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
It wasn’t. They didn’t care.
Robert De Niro posed a hypothetical that made the viewers bust out laughing even because the actor remained totally stone-faced.
“Simply think about Donald Trump directing this movie,” he mentioned at Monday’s New York premiere of Francis Ford Coppola‘s Megalopolis. “It’ll by no means go anyplace,… pic.twitter.com/DAcoKekuln
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 24, 2024
De Niro slammed Republicans, notably these supporting Trump, as a menace to the nation. He turned his ire to Trump subsequent.
“We will’t have this type of individual ruining the nation,” De Niro raged about the actual property mogul who didn’t destroy the nation in his earlier, four-year time period.
Simply think about if Trump tried to direct “Megalopolis,” the actor continued in a weird tangent. He couldn’t construct something, De Niro added, ignoring Trump constructing towering skyscrapers within the aggressive actual property world over the previous 40-plus years.
“He desires to destroy the nation,” De Niro mentioned, echoing themes he shared outdoors the New York Metropolis courtroom listening to the federal government’s case towards Trump earlier this yr.
Lee sang from the identical hymnal, warning the viewers that the election stays too shut for consolation. He demanded folks register to vote and use their energy to maintain Trump out of workplace.
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Coppola strained to maintain the night on observe. He spoke about his movie’s optimism in difficult occasions. Later, he reminded audiences how he employed “canceled” actors, together with Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman, in a show of concord.
He added that his solid shared differing political opinions, together with overtly conservative icon Jon Voight. He marveled at how the actors got here collectively to create artwork regardless of their viewpoints.
He may have used that sense of camaraderie Monday night time.
This isn’t the primary time De Niro used an leisure podium to assault Trump. He cursed out the president through the 2018 Tony Awards telecast.
He additionally complained when Apple requested him to not get political throughout an occasion to advertise “Killers of the Flower Moon” final yr.
The actor seen that his speech had been edited to take away its political posturing, however he re-inserted his anti-Trump musings.