Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film, the sci-fi-tinged Megalopolis, has descended into chaos, according to multiple sources. The film, which is currently half-shot in Atlanta, has lost key creative talent over the past week, including its production designer and senior art director. Add to that the loss of the entire visual effects team in the first half of December.
For many insiders, the self-financed production is fueling a heavy Apocalypse Now redux vibe, in which the iconoclastic 83-year-old director breaks a fundamental Hollywood rule: “Never spend your own money.”
Megalopolis was a decade-long passion project for the filmmaker, who caused a stir in fall 2021 when it was revealed he would be self-financing the $120 million film, in part with the tens of millions he makes from the sales of his beloved Northern had California wineries. The film has been budget-boosted and is now about halfway through its 80-90 day shoot, but a production source says it’s unclear if production can go ahead as planned.
Coppola officials did not respond to a request for comment in a timely manner.
Coppola assembled a star cast including Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman and Dustin Hoffman. The film focuses on an architect who wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia after a catastrophe. Sources say Coppola initially employed a new virtual production technology similar to that used in The Mandalorian. But as the challenges and costs of that approach mount, these sources say production is trying to transition to a less expensive, more traditional green screen approach. “There is no good answer here,” says a production manager. “[Coppola] will spend a lot more money than he intended. You can imagine how much he has already invested. It would be a very bitter pill not to finish it.”
Sources say that Coppola, who has never directed an effects-heavy film, fired nearly his entire visual effects team on Dec. 9, with the rest of that department soon following. Mark Russell, a veteran whose credits included In the Heights and The Wolf of Wall Street, led the team as visual effects producer. (Coppola famously fired his special effects department at Dracula 30 years earlier.)
Recently, production designer Beth Mickle and executive art director David Scott left. Between layoffs and resignations, a source says the film doesn’t have an arts department now. Russell, Mickle and Scott did not respond to requests for comment.
“The Art Directors Guild supports all art departments to ensure proper staffing and scheduling, and is currently evaluating the situation with Megalopolis to determine next steps,” said a spokesman for the Art Directors Guild, which represents both art directors and production designers Explanation. “We have no further comment at this time.”
A talent rep whose client was among those fired says the firing was a blessing in disguise. “It was absolutely amazing to be on set,” says this person.
Despite the crew’s departures, Coppola is continuing and hiring new staff this week, according to sources.
In March 2022, Coppola told he was putting his own money into the film, which has no distributors, to do it his way. Coppola said, “Everyone thinks a film should be a certain way, and it goes against the grain when you have a different idea. People can be very intolerant, but sometimes the other idea represents what’s coming in the future. That’s worth considering.”
Coppola’s methods have produced some of the best films of all time, what critics consider some of the greatest films of all time, including The Godfather (1972) and its 1974 sequel, both of which won Best Picture at the Oscars. But he hasn’t had a hit since Dracula, and most recently he directed the 2011 crime drama Twixt, which starred Val Kilmer and Bruce Dern and was largely a home entertainment piece.
The director has a long history of challenging productions. He self-financed the musical romance One from the Heart in 1982, which went unperformed, and followed that up with The Cotton Club, the all-star crime drama in 1984. This film, also a bombshell, was notoriously known not only for a troubled set — the crew was fired abruptly — but also for a revolving door of financiers.
But there was no more famously ominous Coppola production than the production of Apocalypse Now, a grueling shoot that narrated the story of a descent into madness and chaos. The 1979 film won two Oscars and became a classic.
At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the filmmaker said: “We were in the jungle. We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we were going insane.”
– Katie Kilkenny and Borys Kit contributed to this story.