‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?’ Francis Ford Coppola’s 40-year battle to film Megalopolis - The director has spent half his life and $120m of his own money to make his sci-fi epic. Just days ahead of its debut in Cannes, some of his crew members are questioning his methods.

Some highlights:

"He would often just sit in his trailer for hours on end, wouldn’t talk to anybody, was often smoking marijuana… "

Perfect. No notes.

“I think he just wanted to liberate himself while he was shooting. So he didn’t have to wait for stuff, and then he’d say ‘Oh, I’ll fix it later. I’ll fix it in post – which I guess he’s done.” The virtual “volume” was abandoned in favour of more traditional “green screen” technology”, according to one source: “His dig at us was always, ‘I don’t want to make a Marvel movie,’ but at the end of the day, that’s what he ended up shooting.”

You either die a hero, etc.

Several sources also felt that Coppola could be “old school” in his behaviour around women. He allegedly pulled women to sit on his lap, for example. And during one bacchanalian nightclub scene being shot for the film, witnesses say, Coppola came on to the set and tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras. He apparently claimed he was “trying to get them in the mood”.

Jeez

"We already know what happened to Rome. Rome became a fascist empire. Is that what we’re going to become?”

Actually, no, that’s not the truth, Ellen.