Frances Ford Coppola says studio executives aren’t hired ‘to make good movies’ but to help studios ‘pay their debts’

Francis Ford Coppola addressed the state of the film industry on the release of his self-financed feature Megalopolishis first film since 2011. The author frankly called out the major film studios during the Cannes Film Festival press conference, saying that they were more interested in settling their “big, big debt” than in making good movies.

“I worry that the film industry has become more about hiring people to take care of their debts because the studios are very, very in debt. And the job is not so much to make good films, the job is to make sure they pay their debts,” Coppola said, according to Variety.

As tech companies join the streaming wars and create their own studios, Coppola said it’s possible the studio system will change as we know it.

“Obviously the new companies like Amazon, Apple and Microsoft have a lot of money, so it could be that the studios that we’ve known for so long, some of them wonderful, won’t be around in the future,” he said. -he declares.

Coppola financed the $120 million film himself after selling part of his winery. Megalopolis has been something of a passion project, since Coppola is said to have been writing and developing the film for over 40 years.

Megalopolis stars Adam Driver as architect Cesar Catilina, who hopes to rebuild a destroyed metropolis into a peaceful utopia, until a corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) stands in his way. The film reflects “a Roman epic set in modern America.”

The film, which Coppola said is meant to be “a Roman epic set in modern-day America,” has received mixed reviews since its Cannes premiere.

Coppola also faced renewed skepticism after a recent report from The Guardian who claims he tried to kiss some female extras to try to “get them in the mood” for a scene. Megalopolis Co-executive producer Darren Demeter acknowledged that Coppola gave “kind hugs and kisses on the cheek to the cast and background players” but said he was “never aware of any complaints of harassment or bad behavior during the project.

The report also outlines dozens of complaints from crew members who say the director wasted time on set and demonstrated “unpleasant” behavior toward cast and crew while filming in Atlanta, in Georgia.

It seems that the 85-year-old director can bring more.

During the conference, Coppola hinted that he had already started work on the next film.

“I know I’m done with (Megalopolis) because I have already started writing another film,” he said. The New York Times.