Details of Francis Ford Coppola’s chaotic mismanagement of Megalopolis leak: ‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?’

But several sources who worked with the filmmaker on the project began to question his decision-making. Some of them quit midway. “It was like watching a train wreck unfold day after day, week after week, and knowing that everybody there had tried their hardest to help the train wreck be avoided,” one person said. Coppola reportedly rewrote the script 300 times over 40 years, but according to members of the crew, often appeared to be clueless on set. “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. And the crew and the cast would all stand around and wait,” another person commented.

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On Driver’s first day, Coppola made him sit on a chair for six hours while he tinkered with an in-camera effect that a crew member said could be achieved in 10 minutes with visual effects. “I’m all for experimentation, but this is really what you want to do the first day with your $10m actor?” they wondered. “I think Coppola still lives in this world where, as an auteur, you’re the only one who knows what’s happening, and everybody else is there just to do what he asks them to do,” another person said. “This sounds crazy to say, but there were times when we were all standing around going: ‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?’”

“We were all aware that we were participating in what might be a really sad finish to his career,” another crew member added, while others felt that the filmmaker ‘was just so unpleasant toward a lot of the people who were trying to help facilitate the process and help make the movie better.’ Some also pointed out Coppola’s inappropriate behaviour with ‘scantily clad’ actors in a bacchanal scene. He allegedly kissed several women ‘to get them in the mood’, and on other occasions, would pull female crew members towards him and make them sit on his lap.

Responding to these allegations, executive co-producer Darren Demetre was quoted as saying, “I have known and worked with Francis and his family for over 35 years. As one of the first assistant directors and an executive producer on his new epic, Megalopolis, I helped oversee and advise the production and ran the second unit. Francis successfully produced and directed an enormous independent film, making all the difficult decisions to ensure it was delivered on time and on budget, while remaining true to his creative vision. 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 behaviour during the course of the project.”

These stories are similar to the ones that crept up during the production of Coppola’s war classic Apocalypse Now. That film’s troubled production was documented by his late wife in the film Hearts of Darkness. Director Mike Figgis was hired by Coppola to document the making of Megalopolis. Also starring Shia LaBeouf (with whom Coppola reportedly had a combative relationship on set), Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, and many others, Megalopolis has failed to secure US distribution, although Coppola has successfully sold off European distribution rights to a handful of companies ahead of its grand debut at the Cannes Film Festival, where it will be screened in competition.