Francis Ford Coppolais a titan of American cinema, an architect of the New Hollywood movement that changed the way films are made. Alongside filmmakers including George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Brian de Palma, Coppola defined a new era of film that reflected the auteur’s vision. These guys didn’t want to churn out stale movies with mass appeal; they wanted to create cinema with something to say. For Coppola, this amounted to a wide catalog of over 20 films that reflect a seminal push and pull between the studio, culture, and the artist’s life.
As happens to just about anyone with a decades-spanning career, Coppola has faced his fair share of struggles. The most famous of these was thecursed productionofApocalypse Now, captured in the behind-the-scenes documentaryHearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse. But this is just one film in a long and storied career; how else is Coppola cursed, and how has he cursed others in the process?
Coppola’s Early Failure Leads to Success
Coppola’s desire to work outside the Hollywood system came early. After the success of his MA thesis film,You’re a Big Boy Now, Coppola was hired to direct a film adaptation of the musicalFinian’s Rainbow. Reviews were modest, and although the movie is looked back on with some fondness, it’s stillone of Coppola’s weaker movies. It was on the set forFinian’s Rainbowthat Coppola met friend and collaborator George Lucas.
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Coppola was already fed up with the studio system, so for his next movie,The Rain People, he would attempt to break free. This was the first picture out of Lucas and Coppola’s new production company, American Zoetrope. AfterThe Rain People, Zoetrope’s next movie was Lucas’s directorial debut,THX 1138. The science fiction film was a flop and left Coppola and his new production company in debt to Warner Bros. It’s thanks to these dire straits and Lucas’ prodding that Coppola begrudgingly accepted Paramount’s offer to direct his seminalmasterpiece,The Godfather.
The Cursed Production of Apocalypse Now
The 70s were the height of Coppola’s career, capped off by the incredible and infamousApocalypse Now. Inspired by Joseph Conrad’sHeart of Darknessand the still-fresh war in Vietnam,Apocalypse Nowis a psychedelic epic that follows a single soldier as he’s plunged into the horrors of war. The filmwas famously plagued bydisaster. To start, the film’s budget ballooned from $12 million to more than $30 million; much of this money was Coppola’s. Coppola also faced issues with his actors: Marlon Brando didn’t prepare at all for his role, and production had to be shut down for a week so he could learn his lines. Martin Sheen famously almost died on the set of a heart attack from which he took over a month to recover.
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Actors didn’t present the only challenges to makingApocalypse Now. The film was shot in the Philippines during a civil war, putting every member of the cast and crew in danger. Not only that, but the helicopters Coppola rented for the film were from the government. These and their pilots often left the set without notice (there was a war on, after all), costing the production thousands each time. As if the universe were trying to destroy the film itself, Typhoon Olga rolled through and destroyed most of the sets. The Filipino workers were already poorly paid for the first set construction and weren’t paid to rebuild. Despite these and othercontroversial setbacks,Apocalypse Nowwas a massive hit, but the curse was just beginning.
Coppola’s Curse Carries On
Coppola’s next film,One From the Heart, was supposed to be easy; instead, the romantic comedy was a box-office disaster, grossing less than $650 thousand against a $26 million budget. Coppola went into massive debt; his output fromThe Outsiders(1983) untilThe Godfather: Part III(1990) was the director’s way of paying this off. Of them all, only those two and the romantic comedyPeggy Sue Got Marriedwas successful. The other four movies—Rumble Fish,The Cotton Club,Gardens of Stone, andTucker: The Man and His Dream—all failed to break even. Despite this decade of financial failure, Coppola came out ahead whenThe Godfather: Part IIIwas a box-office smash.
Coppola’s Connection to Victor Salva
In a karmic way, Francis Ford Coppola’s curse should at least in part be attributed to his connection to real-life monsterVictor Salva. Impressed by the fledgling director’s short filmSomething in the Basement, Coppola produced the feature adaptationClownhouse.While making the movie, Salva sexually assaulted a 12-year-old actor, and the ensuing investigation also uncovered sexually explicit child abuse materials in Salva’s home. Salva confessed and was convicted to three years in prison, of which he served 15 months before returning to aHollywood that embraced him. Following his release, Coppola gave Salva $5000 to get back on his feet.
Salva was arrested beforeClownhousewrapped production, and his victim Nathan Forrest Winters claims that Coppola told him during this time that he would be blacklisted in Hollywood. The producer also threatened to sue Winters for breach of contract if he didn’t finish his work on the film. When asked to comment about Salva during the height of the initial controversy,Coppola told the LA Timessimply, “Victor is a talented young director.” In a later interview with the Times,Coppola stated, “You have to remember, while this was a tragedy, that the difference in age between Victor and the boy was very small—Victor was practically a child himself.” Salva was 29, 17 years older than Winters. In 2001, Coppola executive produced the first of Salva’sJeepers Creepersseries, and he returned to the same role for the sequel in 2003. Combined, the films made over $120 million, proving that, in Hollywood, it isn’t what you do but who you know.
Will Megalopolis Break the Curse?
Coppola’s passion projectMegalopolisis over 40 years in the making. The sci-fi epic starring Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, and Nathalie Emmanuel wrapped production in March 2023. Early reporting indicatedchaos on set, particularly when several members of the creative team were terminated and several others resigned. The $120 million budget, which Coppola supplied by selling his namesake winery, had also apparently ballooned out of control.Coppolaand Driver denied the claims of chaos on set,Driver calling it“one of the best shooting experiences [he’s] had.”Megalopolisis set to release in 2024, so it remains to be seen if this potential swan song is a hit on par withApocalypse NowandThe Godfatheror if it will be the director’s biggest financial failure to date.
