When Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” opened in theaters last September, the dystopian epic baffled audiences and earned the filmmaker a Razzie Award for worst director.
Now, “Megadoc,” a new documentary being released this weekend, offers audiences a window into the unorthodox and sometimes chaotic set of Coppola’s more than $120 million passion project.
“Megalopolis,” which is set in a futuristic city inspired by ancient Rome, stars Adam Driver as an ambitious architect, Aubrey Plaza as a ruthless journalist, LaBeouf as Driver’s corrupt cousin, plus Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight and Giancarlo Esposito in other key roles.
Coppola, who is behind “The Godfather” and other classics, first conceived of the idea for the film in 1977. He tried to raise financing for the movie for decades before finally deciding to put up his own money from the family wine business. But the movie disappointed audiences after its release and ended up grossing just $14 million domestically. Some critics went so far as calling it “a work of absolute madness,” and it ended up being deemed one of the more “divisive” films of the year.
With “Megadoc,” British director Mike Figgis wanted to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Coppola’s creative process, hoping that audiences who watch the documentary will better understand and appreciate “Megalopolis.”
“Francis is a brilliant filmmaker, but his ideas are very complicated,” Figgis said in a recent phone interview. “Sometimes you have to help the audience a little bit.”
But the film also showcases the drama on set, including Coppola’s arguments with actor Shia LaBeouf and the crew, and his frustrations with shooting the most expensive independent film of all time on his own dime.
Figgis said Driver didn’t want the documentary crew to film him working, so he focused his lens primarily on LaBeouf, Plaza and Voight.
LaBeouf, who rose to fame on the Disney Channel in the early 2000s, appears to revere Coppola. But in the documentary, he is also seen driving the 83-year-old director completely nuts.
“Shia wants to talk about his role a lot,” Figgis said, adding that the actor “sometimes overstepped the mark because he didn’t get the answer he wanted, and Francis, well, he’s in his 80s and sometimes he’s just tired.”
In one scene, Coppola yells at LaBeouf: “Give me what I want!”
“I don’t know what you want!” LaBeouf shouts back.
Figgis also captured Coppola’s conflicts with his production designer and visual effects team, who were replaced in the middle of production when their methods, which required careful planning, clashed with Coppola’s more spontaneous approach.
“I’d wake up and be so cheerful because none of this is my responsibility, none of this is my fault and I don’t have to fix anything,” Figgis said of watching the creative disputes unfold.
Also in the film is Coppola’s wife, Eleanor, who had chronicled his earlier filmmaking misadventures, most notably shooting candid footage from the set of 1979’s “Apocalypse Now” that would end up in the cult documentary “Hearts of Darkness.”
Eleanor died in April 2024, just weeks before “Megalopolis” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, but she was on set long enough to give Figgis some advice on shooting her husband at work.
“Ellie said to me, ‘He’s gonna change his mind,’” Figgis said. “‘Look out for that,’”
Figgis first arrived on the Atlanta set in late 2022, as Coppola was beginning rehearsals. The two filmmakers had met at the Oscars nearly 30 years earlier, when Figgis was attending the award show for his 1995 film “Leaving Las Vegas,” which starred Coppola’s nephew Nicolas Cage.
They stayed in touch over the years, and when Figgis heard that Coppola was finally going to make “Megalopolis” after decades of trying, he said, “I wrote to him and said, ‘Congrats! P.S. If you need a fly on the wall, let me know.’”
“I didn’t have a plan,” Figgis said. “I just knew it would be interesting ’cause it was Francis. The weight of the budget — everybody had the same puzzled interest in how this would go.”
Coppola gave Figgis notes on “Megadoc,” including the handling of the crew disputes.
“He felt I had been too evenhanded about his issues with the art department,” Figgis said.
But ultimately, Coppola let Figgis tell the story his way. And after hearing a year’s worth of feedback on the film, including at audience Q&A’s during a multicity theater tour this summer, Coppola is now re-editing “Megalopolis” at his Napa Valley home.