Francis Ford Coppola wanted voice recognition software for Megalopolis, and it sounds “insane”

Megalopolis is already becoming one of the most polarizing movies of the year, but Francis Ford Coppola had a request for Amazon that would have made his epic even stranger.

As described by Coppola, this “software” would have involved the sci-fi movie cutting to black after a large disaster scene, followed by the house lights of the respective theaters coming on. After which, a user would go into the screening with a microphone.

At this point, audience members would have been allowed to ask a question to the on-screen version of Adam Driver. Using the voice recognition software, Amazon Alexa would then instruct the projector to play the pre-filmed response that matched the question most closely.

“Imagine!” Coppola said [via The Telegraph]. “You could see Megalopolis five times in its opening week and it would be different each time! It would have been the future of the movies and ancient theater rolled into one!”

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Unfortunately, this vision never came to life, since Amazon laid off thousands of employees between 2022 and 2023. Among them was the team charged with developing this new technology for Megalopolis.

This idea might seem so unbelievable as to be impossible, but the final result did actually make its way into the final edit. It was Adam Driver that suggested to Coppola that they include just one of the filmed responses in the new movie, and that the usher themselves could ask a pre-planned question to the screen.

This did transpire at the film’s premiere at Cannes, and snapshots of the event can be found online. Apparently, this detail will be included in some screenings of the UK release of Megalopolis later this month.

Naturally, the original plan for Megalopolis has garnered plenty of opinions on social media, many of them split between admiration and bewilderment.

“Movie going for like 5 hours because I keep asking about Girls,” joked one X user. Another added: “We were so close to the funniest movie experience ever conceived.”

“Bro trying to turn cinema into a smart phone app,” said a third, while a fourth wrote: “That would’ve be INSANE.”

Megalopolis will be released in theaters on September 27, 2024.

For more, check out all the other new movies coming out this month. You can also take a look at all the best war movies and best romance movies for more big screen drama.