‘How often do I think of Ancient Rome?’: An 84 year-old legend with 5 Oscars and a deep-seated hatred of Marvel tries to get down with the kids

There’s absolutely no denying that Francis Ford Coppola is one of the greatest directors to ever pick up a megaphone, but it would also be fair to say that he’s not held in the same kind of esteem by the younger generations as he is by those steeped in the knowledge of cinema’s past.

Having won five Academy Awards from 14 nominations and accrued a back catalogue of classics that features The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and plenty more besides, his status as a legend of motion picture history has long been secured. However, it’s been a long time since he made a movie that came close to approaching greatness, and the jury is still very much out on whether Megalopolis will restore him to former glories.

Coppola is nothing if not confident seeing as he funneled an exorbitant amount of his own money into the production, but the noted enemy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe might just be trying to appeal to the social media crowd after the 84 year-old took to Instagram to hop on the Roman Empire bandwagon in an effort to tie it to his upcoming sci-fi epic.

“How often do I think of Ancient Rome? Quite a lot, as the Roman Republic served as the example for my country America and its institutions, and was the inspiration for my upcoming film. My fascination with the Roman Republic is based on the struggle between the political parties during which the interest of the Republic yielded to the ambitions of a few powerful men who espoused the aims of political parties to establish their own fortunes and authority by relying upon armed forces to achieve those ends, dealing the final blow to a constitution already tottering to its fall.”

There you have it folks, even Francis Ford Coppola finds the Roman Empire crossing his mind every now and again, even if it’s the MCU that apparently haunts his nightmares.