Francis Ford Coppola spent an estimated $120 million (most of it borrowed against his successful wine business) to make Megalopolis, a dream project of personal artistic expression.
Coppola's was an extravagant gesture reminiscent of Howard Roark, the architect hero of Ayn Rand's 1943 novel The Fountainhead, who made only what he wanted to make, irrespective of market demand. Megalopolis' content is somewhat Randian as well—hero Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) is both an architect, like Roark, and an inventor of a miracle building material, like Hank Rearden, from Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged.
