“If I could summarize the plot for you in a concise way, I would, but I can’t, because Coppola can’t either. Ask him. ‘It’s very simple,’ he’ll say. ‘The premise of Megalopolis? Well, it’s basically… I would ask you a question, first of all: Do you know much about utopia?’ The best I can do, after literally hours talking about it with him, is this: It’s a love story that is also a philosophical investigation of the nature of man; it’s set in New York, but a New York steeped in echoes of ancient Rome; its scale and ambition are vast enough that Coppola has estimated that it will cost $120 million to make. What he dreams about, he said, is creating something like It’s a Wonderful Life—a movie everyone goes to see, once a year, forever. ‘On New Year’s, instead of talking about the fact that you’re going to give up carbohydrates, I’d like this one question to be discussed, which is: Is the society we live in the only one available to us? And discuss it.’ Somehow, Megalopolis will provoke exactly this discussion, Coppola hopes. Annually … And so this is Coppola’s plan. He is going to take $120 million of his own fortune, at 82 years of age, and make the damn movie himself.” (All right. This one time he’ll let you ask him about his affairs.) GQ: Francis Ford Coppola’s $100 Million Bet.