Meet director who sold business to fund film when studio backed out, spent 40 years and Rs 1000 crore, fired entire team

On Tuesday, the first teaser trailer of Francis Ford Coppola’s ambitious film Megapolis was released. The film, described as an epic sci-fi drama, is a passion project of Coppola who first conceived the idea way back in 1977 and has been working on it since 1983. Despite the many hurdles Megapolis has faced over the years, the film is now finally nearing a theatrical release, and all due to the efforts of one man – Coppola.

The 40-year struggle to make Megapolis

A New Yorker by birth, Coppola wanted to capture the city in a sci-fi film, which led to the basic idea behind Megapolis in 1977, when he had just finished Godfather 2. In 1983, the director began writing the film’s screenplay but it remained in production hell for years. In 1989, production was announced under a different title but work never began. In 2001, actors including Nicolas Cage, Russell Crowe, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Edie Falco, James Gandolfini, Jon Hamm, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, and Uma Thurman did table reads for the film. But the project halted again.

How Coppola sold his business and invested Rs 1000 crore in the film

After production on Megapolis was halted in 2001-02, Coppola sold his winery business to raise money for the project. As per Vanity Fair, the directed has invested $120 million (Rs 1000 crore) of his own money in the project as no studio was willing to back the ambitious project. The casting was eventually completed in 2022 and the film went on floors later that year. In December 2022, the director fired most of the visual effects team, with the rest of the department. While Covid-19 delayed filming somewhat, work was completed on the film in early 2024.

Megapolis’ release woes

After test screenings of the film in April, The Hollywood Reported stated that distributors were unwilling to bet on the film, and major studios did not want to spend $80–100 million (Rs 650-830 crore) on a publicity campaign. Eventually, the film was announced to be premiering at the Cannes Film Festival 2024. Soon after the announcement, international distributors bought the film for Europe. No release date has been announced yet but the film is slated for a theatrical release this year.

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