Lionsgate Films
- A trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's "Megalopolis" was pulled because it used fake quotes.
- Coppola also came under fire when videos of him kissing extras on the set surfaced online.
- Coppola funded the science-fiction drama himself, and it cost him $120 million to make.
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."
Lionsgate Films
In a lengthy feature published in May, The Guardian explained how difficult it was for Coppola to get "Megalopolis" made, and also reported that he was unprofessional and unorganized when filming started in November 2022.
An anonymous crewmember told the outlet: "He would often show up in the mornings before these big sequences and because no plan had been put in place, and because he wouldn't allow his collaborators to put a plan in place, he would often just sit in his trailer for hours on end, wouldn't talk to anybody, was often smoking marijuana … And hours and hours would go by without anything being filmed."
Anonymous crewmembers also alleged Coppola was unprofessional toward women, with the Guardian writing that he "tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras." He claimed it was an attempt to "get them in the mood" for a debauched nightclub scene, the outlet reported.
Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images
Variety published exclusive videos from the "Megalopolis" set in July 2024, 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."
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."
Lionsgate Films/YouTube
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).
Lionsgate said in a statement to Variety on Thursday: "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."
Lionsgate and Coppola's representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Rocco Spaziani/Archivio Spaziani/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images
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."
Representatives for the Guardian did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage/Getty Images
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."
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