The Magic and Making of Megalopolis Opens September 19

Mike Figgis Steps Inside the Mind of Coppola in a Rare Look at a Lifetime Obsession / Utopia

There are vanity projects, and then there’s Megalopolis—Francis Ford Coppola’s towering, impossible dream of a film. Now, thanks to filmmaker Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, Time Code), we get a rare, unguarded look at the creation of this self-funded epic in The Magic and Making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Epic MEGALOPOLIS, opening in select theaters September 19.

This isn’t a sanitized retrospective. It’s not a fawning tribute or a marketing reel. It’s the kind of documentary that breathes—messy, beautiful, and fully committed to the strange, obsessive rhythm of creation. Think Hearts of Darkness, but even more personal.

What the Doc Captures

Shot in a raw, almost surveillance-style format, Figgis places us inside Coppola’s creative orbit—on set, in backrooms, among actors, in the haze of big dreams and bigger risks. He doesn’t romanticize the process. He watches it.

The film stitches together:

• Unfiltered interviews with cast members like Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Chloe Fineman, Shia LaBeouf, and even Coppola’s longtime peers like George Lucas.

• Archival footage from decades of development hell.

• And a quiet, sometimes painful look at what happens when one of cinema’s great architects keeps building long after the world moved on.

Coppola—who self-financed Megalopolis with the kind of money most filmmakers would retire on—opens himself up here not as a legend, but as a man who refuses to let go of one last idea.

It’s not always flattering. But that’s what makes it compelling.

What Megalopolis Means

We’re used to passion projects collapsing under their own weight. Coppola’s has almost done that more than once. But whether Megalopolis succeeds or doesn’t, this documentary makes one thing clear: the act of making it meant something.

For fans of process, for students of cinema, or for anyone obsessed with watching creative madness unfold—it doesn’t get more honest than this.

THE MAGIC AND MAKING OF FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S EPIC MEGALOPOLIS

Directed by Mike Figgis

Opens in select theaters Friday, September 19, 2025

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.

**2025 Venice Film Festival: Official Selection**

**2025 Telluride Film Festival: Official Selection**