Just how weird is Megalopolis'?

Our critic breaks down the 10 strangest things about Coppola’s new movie

- PETER HOWELL

Just when you think Francis Ford Coppola’s Roman Empire-inspired city-building epic “Megalopolis” couldn’t be a bigger circus, another ring gets added: the trailer for theToronto International Film Festival-bound behemoth was abruptly recalled a couple of weeks ago after it was revealed to contain AI-generated fake negative quotes from real critics.

This was the latest scandal to hit the film, which generated headlines before its Cannes world premiere in May over accusations the 85-year-old writer-director inappropriately hugged and kissed female extras during the production. (He has denied the allegations.)

All this from the cinema legend behind “The Godfather” films, “The Conversation” and “Apocalypse Now.”

Francis Ford Coppola, left, and actor Adam Driver on the set of “Megalopolis.” Driver plays a visionary architect who wants to make New Rome (a.k.a. New York City) into an urban paradise.

Things get even nuttier inside “Megalopolis,” which is coming to TIFF 2024 for its gala North American premiere on Monday. It’s a movie critics love or hate, and one that is impossible to ignore. How nutty is it? Here are my nominations for the 10 weirdest things in it.

1. Adam Driver’s protagonist, Cesar Catilina, a visionary architect, inventor and philanderer who wants to transform New Rome (a.k.a. New York City) into an urban paradise, utters all of the “To be or not to be” soliloquy from “Hamlet” for no particular reason other than to show off. Other characters also quote Shakespeare or Latin phrases or speak in rhyme, all without reason.