As a seasoned gamer with a soft spot for both movies and behind-the-scenes drama, I find myself utterly captivated by the enigmatic tale of Neri Oxman and her involvement in Francis Ford Coppola’s ambitious project, Megalopolis. The interplay between Oxman’s groundbreaking work in material ecology and her own colorful life story is nothing short of fascinating.
In the movie titled “Megalopolis,” directed by Francis Ford Coppola and infamous for its underperformance at the box office, we find a futuristic setting that is the ambitious, somewhat contentious vision of protagonist Cesar Catilina, played by Adam Driver. A modern urbanist, Cesar has developed an innovative construction material called Megalon. To create the film’s unique biomorphic cityscape, Coppola collaborated with Neri Oxman, a renowned 48-year-old Israeli-American designer specializing in the field of “material ecology.
Oxman, an artist whose work has been displayed at MoMA and Centre Pompidou, and who previously teamed up with Bjork to create a 3D-printed mask showcasing the singer’s musculoskeletal structure during performances, states on her website that she found inspiration for the cityscape of the film from Manhattan’s pastoral past before colonization. According to her, hills are remnants of skyscrapers and valleys mirror the street layout of the city grid. In Coppola’s movie, this alternate-reality municipality has been rechristened as New Rome.
At the New York City premiere of Megalopolis on September 23rd, Oxman – who previously declined to comment on her work in response to a request from The Hollywood Reporter – was seen alongside Coppola. Previously, photographers had been interested in Oxman due to her association with Brad Pitt, an architecture enthusiast, after he visited her lab while she was a professor at MIT; they speculated that the two might be dating. In the film, Oxman plays a short but significant role as a physician. Following the release of the movie, Bill Ackman, her husband and a billionaire activist investor, shared on social media that most of Dr. Shira’s character and the scientific aspects related to Megalon were cut from the final edit.
Bill Ackman, a vocal critic of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives and often referred to as a “Big Ideas” man, is quite an influential figure himself, reminiscent of characters from Coppola’s New Rome. This year, his campaign to oust Harvard’s former president due to plagiarism accusations echoed strongly, leading to MIT professor Neri Oxman apologizing for similar errors in her own PhD dissertation. Previously, Oxman faced scrutiny over accepting a donation for her lab from Jeffrey Epstein, a sex trafficker. This issue persisted when Ackman’s private attempts to silence Oxman’s academic superior about the matter became public knowledge.
Although the exact timing of Coppola involving Oxman in the project isn’t specified, it seems unlikely that recent scandals surrounding her and her husband would have troubled the director – on the contrary, he might have been attracted to them. Prior to the release of Megalopolis, the director openly stated that he deliberately selected individuals for this project whom he perceived as “canceled,” explaining his decision by saying, “I didn’t want us to be labeled a ‘woke’ Hollywood production.
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2024-10-08 02:24