After receiving Academy Awards and becoming an icon of Hollywood, Francis Ford Coppola just wants to have “fun.” The auteur’s version of playing around? Directing a self-funded $120 million epic.
The making of Coppola’s controversial “Megalopolis” is captured in documentary “Megadoc” by filmmaker Mike Figgis (Figgis previously helmed the Oscar-nominated “Leaving Las Vegas” and is known for directing episodes of “The Sopranos” and “The Affair.”) “Megadoc” is billed as an “unfiltered” look into Coppola’s “Megalopolis” and his creative process as a whole. The official synopsis for “Megadoc” reads: “A raw, fly-on-the-wall documentary about Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-long journey in creating his self-financed passion project, ‘Megalopolis.’ The bold and unrelenting epic returns in Mike Figgis’ portrait of Coppola’s creative process – weaving together archival material, unfiltered cast interviews, and a close-up view of how the legendary filmmaker drew from Roman history, political allegory, and his own singular vision to shape the world of ‘Megalopolis.’ This isn’t a record of a production on the brink, it’s a personal memoir unfolding in real time.”
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“Megadoc” will debut at Venice 2025. “Megalopolis” actors Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Dustin Hoffman, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Fineman, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, and Talia Shire appear in the documentary, as well as Coppola collaborator Robert De Niro.
“Megadoc” is produced by Tara Li-An and James Mockoski.
Coppola previously said in a press statement that “Megadoc” showcases a variety of perspectives about what it really was like to film “Megalopolis” in Georgia. “The great filmmaker Mike Figgis shot the making of ‘Megalopolis’ as he saw it,” Coppola said. “Interestingly, there are many interpretations of what really happened and it’s all in the documentary although the documentary doesn’t always say which is what. It is for the viewer to behold and interpret.”
Figgis added that Coppola gave him “access to everything, including the amazing archive material he’s accumulated of the many readings of the script as it went from one version to another. I was more or less free to go where I wanted. The cast were open about the working situation and how they were dealing with the idiosyncrasies of Francis and his very individual working methods. What a privilege to be a witness to such a moment in film history.”
Utopia will release “Megadoc” in September. Check out the teaser below.
