The 5 controversies that have haunted Francis Ford Coppola’s utopian dream

Finally, this weekend Francis Ford Coppola has released Megalopolis. The film that the Italian-American filmmaker has been pursuing all his life and that now, with money from your own pockethas just been screened in theaters around the world. All this under the astonishment of international criticism that classifies it as a grandiloquent failure. But beyond the expectation that having a new story from the director of The Godfatherthe film starring Adam Driver has ended up making the news more times for the extra-filmic than by the artistic performance of its author. For this reason and taking advantage of its arrival in theaters, below we want to do a retrospective with the five controversies most important moments surrounding the six-time Academy Award winner’s latest utopian dream:

The 5 controversies of ‘Megalopolis’

1-A “Coppola-style” shoot

A filming of a film as ambitious as Megalopolis It can never be simple. Even less if it is a project that Coppola himself has been wanting to do since almost half a century ago. To begin with, the director had to sell a large part of his vineyards to inject the 120 million dollars initial budget of the film.

The first controversy arose precisely shortly after filming began, when various sources assured that filming was being absolute chaos. A circumstance that did not worry excessively the fans of the cinematic reference of the 70s, since we are talking about the man who managed to carry out Apocalypse Now and Hunch. At the beginning of 2023 it was reported that those responsible for the technical and artistic area had left the set, along with the production designer and the art director, losing several key positions in the development of the recording, which further increased the budget item of the film. Days later, both Coppola himself and Driver went out to deny said organizational anarchyattributing the resignations to simply a change in artistic direction.

2-No distribution on the horizon

Last March, the director still did not have a official distributor for Megalopolis. However, a screening was held for the team and those close to Coppola. After the credits, the applause was unanimous, but the grandiloquent applause of his most personal circle was no guarantee of anything. Furthermore, the absence at that time of a company that wanted to risk the responsibility of placing it in theaters said much more than the opinion of its friends and family. Finally, Lionsgate took on the challenge in the United States and Spain, distribution is carried out by Tripictures.

3-Accusations of sexual harassment

A few hours from officially previewing Megalopolis in Cannes, Guardian published a report in which the author was accused of having had a completely inappropriate behavior on set with several dancers. According to the outlet, Coppola tried to kiss some of the topless extras to “make them enter the environment”.

Denying the major repeatedly and after a video posted by Variety where the director was seen in a supposedly inappropriate attitude, Rayna Menzone of the actresses in question, ended up denying on social networks the accusations with which the director was defamed. The last we know is that Coppola is suing the magazine for defamation, claiming at least 15 million dollars in Los Angeles Superior Court.

4-The trailer with fake reviews

With the trajectory that was dragging, even the final trailer of Megalopolis it had to come with its own controversy. Thus, Lionsgate created promotional material that tried to alleviate the disastrous criticism that the film received in the French competition, precisely showing some of the negative reviews that Coppola’s previous great masterpieces had received. A few hours later it was discovered that these critics and media had never talked about the filmmaker’s work in that way. The distributor He apologized and they removed the piece.

5-The director’s megalomaniacal attitude

The truth is that Coppola himself is already a quite controversial guy with his statements and gestures on the networks. A few days ago he assured that the United States would soon I was going to have an emperorbecause in the end his works were always somewhat prophetic, showing himself as an asset in the campaign against donald trump. Days later, he used his Letterboxd account to give his latest film a five-star rating. Something that has been perceived as an internet meme, but that in a way represents the megalomaniac attitude from a voice that had not been in the industry spotlight for a long time.