Francis Ford Coppola finally made his “dream project,” a film called Megalopolis. Critics don’t care for it. Coppola has destroyed a lot of goodwill this year too – he’s apparently against all things “woke,” and he’s also been accused of being way too “friendly” and “handsy” with various women on the production. Coppola has sounded deeply problematic and out-of-touch in his interviews this year, but people still want to see him as a Hollywood elder. Thus, Spike Lee and Robert DeNiro came out to support him at last night’s Megalopolis premiere in New York. DeNiro and Spike used the premiere to talk sh-t about Donald Trump. It cannot be overstated: genuine New Yorkers despise Trump.

Robert De Niro posed a hypothetical that made the audience bust out laughing even as the actor remained utterly stone-faced.

“Just imagine Donald Trump directing this film,” he said at Monday’s New York premiere of Francis Ford Coppola‘s Megalopolis. “It’ll never go anywhere, from total craziness. He cannot do anything. He cannot hold anything together … He wants to destroy the country. And he could not do this movie. He could not do anything that has a structure.”

De Niro, Spike Lee and Coppola appeared together in a half-hour Q&A before the screening presented by the New York Film Festival at the AMC Lincoln Square Imax. (The festival kicks off Friday but extended itself for the Imax event given the rare chance to gather prominent guests together with the 85-year-old Coppola.)

Asked about his view on the future of cinema, De Niro instead took things in a political direction, motivated by Coppola’s ruminations on the decline of civilizations and the rise of dictators. “I’m worried,” De Niro said. “I see the things in Francis’ film about that, the parallels and so on. To me, it’s not over ’till it’s over and we have to go at this wholeheartedly to beat the Republicans – those Republicans, they’re not real Republicans – and beat Trump. It’s that simple. We cannot have that type of person. Everybody has to get out there and vote.”

Lee didn’t hesitate to agree. “As my sister says, forward not backward,” he said. “It’s simple: Register to vote and show up. …. This election is going to be very, very close. I’m a big sports fan and, the expression you used, it’s not over ’till it’s over. We cannot just think that the game is over when it’s not.”

[From Deadline]

DeNiro has done a lot to vocalize his visceral hatred for Trump, while Spike is usually the one biting his tongue and not going off completely. “We have to go at this wholeheartedly to beat the Republicans – those Republicans, they’re not real Republicans.” What even is a “real Republican” at this point? It’s been nine years – the Trump cult has swallowed the Republican Party. There are no “real Republicans” anymore, just cult members and people who will never vote for Trump. Anyway, during this same Q&A session, Coppola was saying sh-t about how he made a point of hiring some MAGA people and DeNiro basically talked over him. Chaotic.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.