Why "Megadoc" is the Saddest Film of the Year

On May 16th, 2024, at the Cannes Film Festival, audiences waited with baited breath for the premiere of Francis Ford Coppola's epic sci-fi feature: Megalopolis. A film that had been in production for nearly half a century, Megalopolis was one of the most ambitious cinematic projects of all time and marked the return of arguably the most revered director in the world. With a generation-spanning, star-studded cast, a gargantuan budget, and a script forty years in the making, the anticipation for Megalopolis simply could not be overstated. Unfortunately, despite the years of hard work and personal sacrifice, Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis would end up being one of the most ridiculed films of 2024 before swiftly being doomed to obscurity. So what exactly went wrong along the way to derail this train? Over-ambition? Money? Cast and crew disputes? All was revealed in Mike Figgis' 2025 documentary, Megadoc which covered the production of Megalopolis and ended up being one of the most devastating films of the year.

Megalopolis was the film that Francis Ford Coppola always wanted to make, and with a resume including The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and The Conversation, expectations were set through the roof. In the year 2025, there are probably only 2 or 3 directors that can accurately be described on the same level as Coppola. His half a century long career has spawned classic after classic, so when it was announced that he had a new project in the works, he instantly had the world's attention. When you have five Oscars and two Palm d'Or, you should theoretically be able to produce whatever you want, and in 2024 the stars finally aligned for Coppola to release his dream project. The final cast would be one of the most star-studded in cinema history; consisting of Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, and Laurence Fishburne. A cast of this scale would normally be hugely impractical but Coppola was determined to fulfill his creative vision, investing approximately $120 million of his own money to produce the film.

It cannot be overstated, Megalopolis was the talk of Cannes 2024, which just so happened to be my first time attending the festival. Normally for any premiere, droves of people line up hours before the screening, hoping that there will be enough unclaimed tickets to somehow get a seat in the Grand Lumière Theatre. The day the film was set to release, people started lining up twelve hours in advance and only the first two people ended up getting in. People outside the theater offered to buy tickets from people for hundreds of dollars. This was essentially the SuperBowl of film and those tickets were priceless. Imagine if Michael Jordan came out of retirement for one last game on the biggest court in the world, claiming that this game was the one he'd always dreamed of playing. That's how big this event was. Once the film ended, it received a seven minute standing ovation, but just as soon as Megalopolis was introduced to the world, it was immediately thrown to the wolves, otherwise known as the critics...

It is common for films to be revered at the festivals they premiere at, only to be not so well received when introduced to a wider audience. Megalopolis however, was lambasted from the start. Critics said it lacked narrative coherence, ridiculed the dialogue, and were generally just overwhelmed with disappointment. Not only was it bad, it wasn't even the kind of bad you could laugh at, it was just...annoyingly bad. There is some ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) that is so bad that it's noticeable to the untrained ear. When you invest $120 million of your own money into a film, the last thing you want is for it to become a meme...but that's exactly what happened.

The story of Megalopolis is a tragedy, but solely for what happened off-screen. If you were to see the movie with no context you would think it was just an incoherent, overly-ambitious film. But the story gets so much sadder when you learn just how long Francis Ford Coppola wanted to make this movie for, how much of his personal funds he put into it, and even hiring another director to shoot a feature length documentary about the making of the film. Coppola's blind, total confidence in this project is what makes Megalopolis such a tragic cautionary tale. Fortunately, Mike Figgis' Megadoc shows exactly where the film went sour...

Mike Figgis is an English filmmaker, most known for his 1995 feature, Leaving Las Vegas. Which is ironically the film that won Coppola's nephew, Nicolas Cage the Oscar for Best Actor. Figgis approaches Megadoc in a way that is passionate, he clearly wants the film to succeed as much as Coppola but the more he films, the more his faith in the project begins to visibly wane. Big crew members abandon ship, cast members are fighting, costumes are a hassle, props aren't working right, locations are too expensive, and the movie seems to be losing more and more money as the days goes on. After a while it seems like Figgis' presence on set gradually became more of a nuisance than a novelty as people were scrambling to get scenes finished. The fact that there's a documentary at all makes things feel even more grim because it shows just how confident Coppola was that this film would be a hit,

Perhaps most depressing of all is that throughout the whole production, Coppola kept reiterating to his cast and crew that he wasn't making this film for money, or fame, or praise, he already had all of those things. He was making Megalopolis "to have fun," but in reality, principal photography was anything but.

As a documentary, Megadoc does a great job at capturing the gargantuan scale of production, as well as the perfect storm of that made it all come crumbling down. But they did leave out one key thing...

On May 15th, 2024, the day before Megalopolis was set to premiere, a bombshell article was published by the New York Times, alleging that Coppola had sexually harassed extras while on set. Due to the article's timing and severity, these allegxations became the talk of Cannes. Variety magazine reported that Coppola "appeared to act with impunity" during production, allegedly "leaping up to hug and kiss several women.” That September, Coppola filed a $15 million lawsuit against the publication. Whether or not these allegations are true, they are a pretty substantial footnote in the film's journey, and I was absolutely shocked to find no mention of them at all throughout the entirety of Megadoc.

The documentary ends with footage of the cast and crew attending the premiere of Megalopolis on the Cannes red carpet, over a day since the allegations arose. Despite my deep respect and admiration for Mike Figgis as a director, I couldn't help but feel disappointed at this exclusion. I has a profound impact on Megadoc's quality, turning a hard-hitting documentary into a sort of idol-worship piece. While I understand the decision to leave out this scandal from the film, I would've respected the documentary a lot more if Figgis and company dedicated themselves to telling the whole truth.

Like I said before, Megalopolis is a tragedy, both on and off screen. At 86 years old, it will likely be Francis Ford Coppola's last feature film. Despite its pitfalls, I don't think Megalopolis is bad enough to destroy the legacy of one of the best filmmakers of all time. But after seeing all of the time, energy, and money that Coppola dedicated to bringing this undeniable failure to life, you can't help but feel a little bit bad for the man who has it all.