What ‘Megadoc’ Director Mike Figgis Really Thinks of Francis Ford Coppola’s Troubled Epic ‘Megalopolis’

Francis Ford Coppola‘s 2024 “Megalopolis” went off like a bomb — a succès d’estime, film maudit, or total disaster, depending on your perspective.

For his first feature in 13 years, and one decades in the making, the Oscar-winning “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather” filmmaker plunged more than $120 million of his own money into reimagining 21st-century New York City as a new Roman empire over which preside a visionary architect (Adam Driver) and a corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito). Production began in earnest at Georgia’s Trilith Studios in November 2022, where Coppola bought out a Days Inn to convert into the production headquarters and the sprawling cast’s living quarters for a four-month-long shoot.

Controversy followed, crews tussled, the trades reported mass exodus and creative disagreement on set. If you’re reading this, you know the rest of the story — all the way up to the film’s divisive Cannes 2024 premiere in competition,…