Hollywood icon Francis Ford Coppola under medical care in Rome
Francis Ford Coppola has been admitted to the Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome.
According to Italian news agency ANSA, the 86-year-old director of masterpieces like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now entered the hospital ward this morning, CE Report quotes ANSA.
Coppola has spent part of the summer in Italy, partly to scout locations for his new film, which is expected to begin shooting in the fall.
In mid-July, he was warmly welcomed by a crowd of young people in Soverato, where he appeared as a special guest at the opening of the Magna Graecia Film Festival.
"Youth tell me the world is a mess, but I respond that there is no problem that mankind cannot solve. We must build a new and better future—together—for the sake of our children. And tonight, we take a leap into the future," he said on that occasion.
After winning an Oscar and becoming a Hollywood icon, Coppola chose to take on Megalopolis, a $120 million self-financed epic—an ambitious and widely discussed film presented at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
The project will also be featured in a documentary titled Megadoc, directed by Mike Figgis, which is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2025.
Coppola has deep ties to Italy, especially the region of Basilicata. His grandfather, Agostino, emigrated from the town of Bernalda in the early 1900s, and Coppola became an honorary citizen of the town on May 1, 1989.
He often vacations there, enjoying the nearby beaches of Metaponto on the Ionian Sea. As part of a revitalization project for the area, he purchased a historic palace in Bernalda and turned it into a hotel.
