US director Francis Ford Coppola (C) arrives with his granddaughters Pascale Coppola (L) and Romy Mars attend a press conference for the film "Megalopolis" during the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 17, 2024.— Photo: Zoulerah NORDDINE / AFP
Multiple Oscar-winner Francis Ford Coppola on Friday said he was "thrilled" to accept this year's tongue-in-cheek Razzie Award for worst director, insisting it shows he has a courage sorely lacking in modern Hollywood.
The legendary filmmaker behind The Godfather and Apocalypse Now poured his own money into last year's passion project Megalopolis, which divided critics, drawing scorn from several.
But Coppola, 85, has always made light of the many barbs aimed at his ambitious and idealistic late-career epic, and his game response to the satirical Razzie Award was no different.
Coppola said he was "thrilled" to accept the dubious accolade, "at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary moviemaking!"
"In this wreck of a world today, where ART is given scores as if it were professional wrestling, I chose to NOT follow the gutless rules laid down by an industry so terrified of risk that despite the enormous pool of young talent at its disposal, may not create pictures that will be relevant and alive 50 years from now," he wrote on social media.
Coppola has said he spent US$120mil of his own money to make Megalopolis, selling a stake in his California vineyard.
Its much-hyped world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last May left the industry confounded.
In a plot that is hard to summarise, Adam Driver stars as a seemingly magical architect whose efforts to rebuild a decaying city into a futuristic utopia are thwarted by its resentful mayor (Giancarlo Esposito).
The movie boasts a stellar cast including Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman.
Critics' responses ranged from a true modern masterwork to a catastrophe. — AFP
