For 40 years was Francis Ford Coppola’s new project Megalopolis in progress. After the filmmaker $120 million invested in the film himself, the sci-fi epic will celebrate its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2024.
In the course of this, now serious allegations against the 84-year-old director and producer by crew members of the film, which The Guardian made public in a comprehensive report. These are the backgrounds.
Megalopolis crew reports Coppola’s problematic behavior on the sci-fi set
As various sources explain to the Guardian, Coppola was on the Megalopolis set “old-fashioned” towards women behave. He is said to have pulled women onto his lap to sit on them. According to several witnesses, while filming a nightclub scene, he tried to shoot some of the kissing scantily clad extras. He is said to have claimed “trying to get her in the mood”.
There are said to have been further incidents on the set of the sci-fi epic, as several crew members explained to The Guardian. Accordingly, Coppola is said to have appeared on set on filming days for major scenes, “without having developed a plan.” Instead, he should “Frequently sat in his trailer for hours” have, “without speaking to anyone.” Often he just has “Smoked marijuana.”
A crew member is quoted in the Guardian as saying:
Hours and hours would pass without anything being filmed. And the cast and crew just stood around and waited. Then [Coppola] sometime [aus seinem Trailer] came out and has pulled something out of a hat, which didn’t make any sense or had to do with anything that had been talked about beforehand or what was on paper, and we all just had to go along with it and make the most of it. But almost every day we just shook our heads and asked ourselves what we had actually been doing for the last 12 hours.
Constantine film
Megalopolis
Another crew member reported similar moments, telling the Guardian:
I know this sounds crazy, but there have been moments when we’ve all stood around and asked ourselves: ‘Has this guy actually made a film before?’
Another member of the Megalopolis crew reiterated Coppola’s behavior, which often overshadowed the Apocalypse Now and The Godfather director’s work:
That’s just how he was unpleasant to many people, who were just trying to move the shoot forward and make the film better. Other members of the Megalopolis crew defend Francis Ford Coppola
Megalopolis executive producer and former assistant director Darren M. Demetre has already spoken out about the allegations against Coppola. Here’s how Demetre explained how he perceived the situations on the set of the sci-fi epic, according to the Guardian:
Over two days we shot a celebratory Studio 54-esque club scene where Franics walked around the set to establish the energy of the scene and therefore gave hugs and kisses on the cheeks of the cast and extras. It was his way of helping establish the club atmosphere, which is very important for the film. I was not aware of any allegations of harassment or misconduct over the course of the project.
Coppola’s long-time friend and colleague Mike Figgis, who documented the filming of Megalopolis in Atlanta, also commented positively on the production process and the director’s behavior:
Watching an 84-year-old man hold a huge team together and have enough brains to direct the actors, the camera and everything… He was taking notes every morning on the way to set, or he did discussed his ideas with Roman, his son. And at the end of the day he is also the producer, so he thinks about his interest rate. When does the sci-fi blockbuster Megalopolis open in cinemas?
Megalopolis celebrates on May 16, 2024 its world premiere in Cannes. Constantin Film will direct the sci-fi epic, whose cast list includes names such as Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), Aubrey Plaza (The White Lotus) and Shia LaBeouf (Transformers). stand, then bring it to the cinema in Germany. A start date has not yet been set.