A timeline of the controversy surrounding Francis Ford Coppola’s $120 million-movie ‘Megalopolis’
Adam Driver as Caesar on the “Megalopolis” poster.
Francis Ford Coppola’s science-fiction drama “Megalopolis” has become mired in controversy in the run-up to its scheduled September release.
Set in a dystopian future, the film sees an architect named Caesar (Adam Driver) and the mayor of the imagined US city, New Rome, fight over how to rebuild it following a disaster.
It’s a passion project that Coppola has been trying to make since 1983. However, the scale and ambition of the movie, which features a technologically advanced city and its lead character controlling time, has made it difficult for the director to persuade studios to provide the huge budget necessary to pull it off.
Their reluctance could be surprising considering Coppola has made some of the best movies of all time, including “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now.” However, the skepticism could partly stem from the fact that his recent projects, including “Twixt” and “Tetro,” failed to ignite the box office. Studios may fear Coppola doesn’t have his finger on the pulse like he once did.
Coppola took it upon himself to fund the movie himself, including selling his vineyards in Sonoma County, California, in July 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Robert Nicholson, an expert in West Coast wine assets, estimated in an interview with North Bay Business Journal that the sale could have fetched between $500 million and $1 billion.
Vanity Fair reported the director used this money to make “Megalopolis” for $120 million.
Here’s a complete timeline of the drama surrounding “Megalopolis.”
May 2024: Crewmembers claim Coppola was unprofessional and unprepared during filming.
Adam Driver as Caesar and Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia in “Megalopolis.”
Francis Ford Coppola’s science-fiction drama “Megalopolis” has become mired in controversy in the run-up to its scheduled September release.
Set in a dystopian future, the film sees an architect named Caesar (Adam Driver) and the mayor of the imagined US city, New Rome, fight over how to rebuild it following a disaster.
It’s a passion project that Coppola has been trying to make since 1983. However, the scale and ambition of the movie, which features a technologically advanced city and its lead character controlling time, has made it difficult for the director to persuade studios to provide the huge budget necessary to pull it off.
Their reluctance could be surprising considering Coppola has made some of the best movies of all time, including “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now.” However, the skepticism could partly stem from the fact that his recent projects, including “Twixt” and “Tetro,” failed to ignite the box office. Studios may fear Coppola doesn’t have his finger on the pulse like he once did.
Coppola took it upon himself to fund the movie himself, including selling his vineyards in Sonoma County, California, in July 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Robert Nicholson, an expert in West Coast wine assets, estimated in an interview with North Bay Business Journal that the sale could have fetched between $500 million and $1 billion.
Vanity Fair reported the director used this money to make “Megalopolis” for $120 million.
Here’s a complete timeline of the drama surrounding “Megalopolis.”
May 2024: Crewmembers claim Coppola was unprofessional and unprepared during filming.
Francis Ford Coppola has self-funded “Megalopolis.”
Variety published exclusive videos from the “Megalopolis” set in July, which appeared to show Coppola kissing an extra in the nightclub scene.
A crew member told Variety that Coppola told the set: “Sorry, if I come up to you and kiss you. Just know it’s solely for my pleasure.”
A new video of Francis Ford Coppola grabbing and kissing female extras on the set of ‘MEGALOPOLIS’ has surfaced online.
He reportedly announced with a microphone to the entire set, “Sorry, if I come up to you and kiss you. Just know it’s solely for my pleasure.”
Another source… pic.twitter.com/ZVaLZNgyj6
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 26, 2024
Executive producer Darren Demetre said in a statement to Variety via Coppola’s team: “There were two days when we shot a celebratory Studio 54-esque club scene where Francis walked around the set to establish the spirit of the scene by giving kind hugs and kisses on the cheek to the cast and background players.
“It was his way to help inspire and establish the club atmosphere, which was so important to the film. I was never aware of any complaints of harassment or ill behavior during the course of the project.”
August 2024: Lionsgate pulls a trailer because it used fake quotes.
Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia in “Megalopolis.”
On August 21, Lionsgate released a new “Megalopolis” trailer.
It started with quotes from bad reviews of Coppola’s previous movies including “The Godfather,” in an apparent attempt to show how critics were wrong about his iconic films, and would eat their words with “Megalopolis,” too.
However, Vulture quickly discovered that some of these quotes were faked, and The Independent reported that one was taken from Roger Egbert’s review of 1989’s “Batman,” not of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” which Coppola directed in 1992.
Lionsgate pulled the trailer (although it can be still seen on YouTube).
In a statement to B-17, a Lionsgate spokesperson said: “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for ‘Megalopolis.’ We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”
Coppola’s representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from B-17.
August 2024: Coppola confirms he kissed ‘young women’ on the ‘Megalopolis’ set.
Francis Ford Coppola at the Cannes Film Festival 2024.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in August, Coppola responded to The Guardian article about the “Megalopolis” production, and claims that he sexually harassed extras during the nightclub scene.
The director called the article “totally untrue,” before saying that he knew the women who he kissed.
“The young women I kissed on the cheek, in regards to the New Year’s scene, they were young women I knew,” he said.
“It’s all so ridiculous. Look at the timing of that article. It’s right before we’re about to premiere the film at Cannes. They’re just trying to damage the picture.”
A Guardian spokesperson told B-17 that Coppola’s team were contacted for comment at the time.
August 2024: Coppola says he didn’t want the film to be a “woke Hollywood production.”
Jon Voight at the “Reagan” premiere in Los Angeles.
Rolling Stone also asked Coppola about casting Jon Voight as Hamilton Crassus III in the film. The actor has been outspoken about his support for Donald Trump.
When discussing Voight and his political views, Coppola said that he intentionally cast people who had been “canceled.”
“What I didn’t want to happen is that we’re deemed some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers. The cast features people who were canceled at one point or another,” he said.
He added: “There were people who are archconservatives and others who are extremely politically progressive. But we were all working on one film together. That was interesting, I thought.”
September 2024: Lionsgate fires a marketing consultant over the trailer.
Adam Driver as Cesar in “Megalopolis.”
Lionsgate fired marketing consultant Eddie Egan in September for the controversy surrounding the fake quotes in the “Megalopolis” trailer.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news on September 4, citing an anonymous executive who previously worked with Egan.
“They threw Eddie under the bus. Egan has the most amount of integrity, a low-key guy who never liked the spotlight. His entire life’s work will now be defined on Google as the person who tried to game the system by creating misinformation,” the source said.
THR noted that an AI engine was used to find negative reviews about Coppola’s work, but it invented its own using information it pulled from the internet.
The outlet also noted that other studio bosses and the rest of the marketing team had to approve the trailer before it went live, and they kept their jobs.
Lionsgate didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from B-17.
