Prior to the premiere of his latest epic ‘Megalopolis’, veteran filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola (‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘The Godfather’) is facing reports that he behaved inappropriately on set.
His return to the Croisette this year is one of the major talking points amongst cinephiles.
However, veteran filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who is in Competition for the Palme d’Or with his latest project Megalopolis, is now facing reports that he ran a chaotic set, which included him smoking pot, leaving cast and crew stranded for direction, and behaving in “an old school manner” with female extras on set.
The story was first reported by The Guardian, which cited sources who said Coppola, 85, made women sit on his lap and tried to kiss several topless or scantily clad female extras.
Megalopolis executive co-producer Darren Demetre denied claims that director Coppola behaved inappropriately with female extras on set.
“I was never aware of any complaints of harassment or ill behaviour during the course of the project,” Demetre told The Hollywood Reporter in response to reports in The Guardian.
“I have known and worked with Francis and his family for over 35 years,” Demetre said. “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.”
One crew member shared: “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…”
They added: “Hours and hours would go by without anything being filmed. And the crew and the cast would all stand around and wait. And then he’d come out and whip up something that didn’t make sense, and that didn’t follow anything anybody had spoken about or anything that was on the page, and we’d all just go along with it, trying to make the best out of it. But pretty much every day, we’d just walk away shaking our heads wondering what we’d just spent the last 12 hours doing.”
His latest epic, Megalopolis, has been described as “a Roman epic set in modern America”, and screens for the press in Cannes tomorrow.
What was supposed to be a grand return for the cinematic titan and two-time Palme d’Or winner (The Conversation; Apocalypse Now) has been now severely overshadowed, and the news adds itself to the looming threat that a bombshell #MeToo report is about to be published during the festival.
Megalopolis, a passion project four decades in the making – which has reportedly set the director back $120 million dollars from his own pocket – has apparently been a marketing nightmare for distributors.
Sources say Coppola is looking for a distributor in the US that will release the film later this year, in time for an awards-season campaign.
The film follows Adam Driver as an idealist architect up against Giancarlo Esposito as a pragmatist mayor. The cast also includes Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter and Dustin Hoffman.
Megalopolis screens tomorrow for the press at the Cannes Film Festival. Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for further updates and the film review.
Additional sources • The Guardian, Hollywood Reporter
