Francis Ford Coppola Going for Broke on “Megalopolis”

Even benevolent producers who give directors total freedom to make films can’t quite do so, by dint of the fact that they’re giving it; the imbalance of power is built into their generosity. Freedom can only be taken, at a price, and, for Francis Ford Coppola, the price of freedom to make the grand-scale political fantasy “Megalopolis” was a hundred and twenty million dollars, which he raised by selling off part of his winery.