What did they expect?

The team behind Monday’s “Megalopolis” IMAX screening invited two of Hollywood’s biggest Trump critics to celebrate the film’s Sept. 27 release.

Francis Ford Coppola’s dream project arrives with plenty of bad buzz, from seriously negative reviews to press reports suggesting the director misbehaved on the set. (Coppola is suing Variety about said allegations).

Monday offered Coppola the chance to change the conversation. He appeared via livestream to share the journey behind “Megalopolis” and what the film means to him.

And us.

He was joined by Robert De Niro and Spike Lee, old industry friends who shared stories of their first meetings In conjunction with the 62nd New York Film Festival.

Dennis Lim, artistic director of NYFF, moderated the live event.

The Q&A, shown to dozens of theaters across the country before the movie, started with Coppola, Lee and De Niro recalling their early days in Hollywood. Lee unofficially kicked off the event’s partisan nature with a reference to “eating cats and dogs.”

The quip recalled allegations that Haitian immigrants are doing just that in the small town of Springfield, Ohio.

That was just the progressive appetizer.

Later, the event’s moderator asked the panel if they had optimism for Hollywood’s future. The industry has been racked with seismic change in recent years, from the pandemic’s fallout to the rise of streaming platforms.

Case in point: One of Hollywood’s legendary directors had to foot the tab for “Megalopolis.” Coppola shared how he leveraged one of his wine businesses to defray the film’s considerable costs.

De Niro and Lee used the “future” question as an invitation to trash Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

It wasn’t. They didn’t care.

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,… pic.twitter.com/DAcoKekuln

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 24, 2024

De Niro slammed Republicans, particularly those supporting Trump, as a threat to the country. He turned his ire to Trump next.

“We can’t have this kind of person ruining the country,” De Niro raged about the real estate mogul who didn’t ruin the country in his previous, four-year term.

Just imagine if Trump tried to direct “Megalopolis,” the actor continued in a bizarre tangent. He couldn’t build anything, De Niro added, ignoring Trump building towering skyscrapers in the competitive real estate world over the past 40-plus years.

“He wants to destroy the country,” De Niro said, echoing themes he shared outside the New York City courtroom hearing the government’s case against Trump earlier this year.

Lee sang from the same hymnal, warning the audience that the election remains too close for comfort. He demanded people register to vote and use their power to keep Trump out of office.

Coppola strained to keep the evening on track. He spoke about his film’s optimism in challenging times. Later, he reminded audiences how he hired “canceled” actors, including Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman, in a display of harmony.

He added that his cast shared differing political views, including openly conservative icon Jon Voight. He marveled at how the actors came together to create art despite their viewpoints.

He could have used that sense of camaraderie Monday night.

This isn’t the first time De Niro used an entertainment podium to attack Trump. He cursed out the president during the 2018 Tony Awards telecast.

He also complained when Apple asked him not to get political during an event to promote “Killers of the Flower Moon” last year.

The actor noticed that his speech had been edited to remove its political posturing, but he re-inserted his anti-Trump musings.