Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola will go down in cinema history as one of Hollywood’s greatest directors. Along with “The Godfather” trilogy, Coppola also brought the world “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” and “Apocalypse Now.” The latter of these is especially noteworthy for how it may be one of the most disastrous film shoots in history.
Coppola’s latest film “Megalopolis” has long been in the works. His grand opus, the project was first floated in the 1980s with starts and stalls until 2019. While it seemed the film was finally picking up steam (as well as an impressive cast), things aren’t going well.
While plot details are scarce, the basic story involves a significant disaster that has left New York City devastated and an architect that seeks to rebuild the area. It’s a tale that’s being told on a more grandiose scale than any other film Coppola has done and reportedly the art direction needed to pull this off is part of the problem.
The shooting is only halfway done, but the film is already over budget. Reportedly, the production designer, supervising art director, and visual effects team have been fired.
This isn’t the first time Coppola has had major production problems (see, “Apocalypse Now“). One of the key differences this time is the film has no distributor, and Coppola is self-financing the $125 million budget. Therefore, if the money runs out, the director doesn’t have another studio to ask for more. The cast alone is costing a pretty penny with the talent that’s involved- Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Talia Shire, Shia LaBeouf, and Aubrey Plaza to name a few.
What happens from here is literally anyone’s guess. Coppola was apparently trying to use The Volume- cutting edge visual effects technology that was employed on “The Mandalorian.” But something seems to have gone awry, potentially due to Coppola not having worked on a film that was so reliant on special effects.
As much as the meddling of studios in a director’s business can be frustrating, sometimes it’s important to have some kind of outside voice or oversight. The problem with passion projects is they can sometimes get out of hand. (Ever see “Hudson Hawk?” )
Then again, sometimes that passion spills over into all elements of production and something magical happens. What’s going to happen with “Megalopolis” is anyone’s guess. At 83 years old, this could be Coppola’s last big project, and it would be a shame to see it all fall apart on him.
