The director of «Megalopolis» Francis Ford Coppola had an ambitious plan to use voice recognition technology to allow viewers to «communicate» with the character of Adam Driver during movie screenings.
Francis Ford Coppola revealed his innovative idea for the screenings of «Megalopolis» in interview to The Telegraph. The director sought to create a unique experience for the audience, allowing them to interact with the film’s protagonist.
The idea was to use voice recognition software. This would allow the audience to ask questions to the character played by Adam Driver. The system was supposed to automatically select the most appropriate answer and play the corresponding video clip on the screen.
To realize this idea, Coppola engaged Amazon. The tech giant agreed to create a special version of its Alexa voice assistant. However, the project failed due to massive redundancies staff at Amazon in 2022, which resulted in the dismissal of the team working on this development.
«Just imagine! — said Coppola. — You could watch Megalopolis five times in the first week of its release, and each time the movie would be different! It would be a combination of future cinema and ancient theater in one!”»
Despite the failure, Coppola did not abandon the idea completely. Adam Driver suggested an alternative option: save one of the prepared answers to respond to a predetermined question from a cinema employee.
This concept was partially implemented during the festival screenings of «Metropolis». Here is the shortened version Vogue stories about one of these shows:
Somewhere in the middle of the movie, when Caesar, played by Driver, was speaking to the camera, the screen suddenly went black. There was some confused applause from those who thought it was the ending — if only we were so lucky. But then, while the lights were still off, a man ran onto the stage in front of the movie screen, holding a long microphone.
…Standing on the side of the stage, illuminated by a spotlight, the man turned to Driver, who had reappeared on the screen, and asked him a question, as if participating in some weird pandemic press conference on Zoom. Driver answered, and the man quickly disappeared from the scene again. It was so strange and seemed so ridiculous that I didn’t know how to react to it.
Although Coppola’s original idea was not fully realized, interactive elements are planned to be included in some UK cinemas.
Francis Ford Coppola’s «Megalopolis» will be available for viewing in Ukrainian cinemas starting September 26. Recently released final trailer in Ukrainian.
Source: The Verge
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