Francis Ford Coppola's $120m passion project Megalopolis 'mired in production problems'

Francis Ford Coppola's long-gestating - and self-financed - sci-fi epic Megalopolis is in peril, insiders close to the movie have claimed, reporting mass crew walkouts and a rapidly ballooning budget halfway through production.

The splashy film features big names such as Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, and Shia LaBeouf, and centers on an architect who seeks to rebuild New York City after a disaster.

Having funded the $120million passion project himself, the legendary director is now in danger of missing a strict March deadline, sources said, and is making a slew of changes to save the production.

The hectic, last ditch effort comes halfway through the film's 80- to 90-day shoot, and as the set - situated in urban Atlanta has fallen into 'chaos.'

Coppola, however, is no stranger to this kind of disorder - famously encountering problems during filming for his masterpiece Apocalypse Now, during which the now 83-year-old director worried the film would be a 'failure' due to the issues. 

But that was more than 50 years ago, and times have changed since Coppola's seminal masterpiece.  

Speaking anonymously to The Hollywood Reporter, sources described how the director - who has never made a effects-heavy film - had sought to first use costly virtual technology seen in productions like the Mandalorian, before costs spiraled wildly out of control.

To rescue Coppola's bottom line, crews reportedly have reverted to more-traditional green screens, leaving what has been touted by the filmmaker as a philosophical 'love story' to likely be less visually impressive than he had planned.

Sources also revealed that the five-time Academy Award winner, whose impressive oeuvre also includes the Godfather Trilogy and Bram Stoker's Dracula, fired almost his entire visual effects team days into shooting just last month.

Shortly thereafter, the remainder of the team resigned, insiders revealed, confiding to the magazine that ever since, 'being on the set is madness.'

The plot of Megalopolis is described as 'an architect wanting to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster,' but the the 82-year-old filmmaker calls his dream project 'a love story.'

'A woman is divided between loyalties to two men. But not only two men. Each man comes with a philosophical principle,' Francis explained to GQ in February.

'One is her father who raised her, who taught her Latin on his lap and is devoted to a much more classical view of society, the Marcus Aurelius kind of view. The other one, who is the lover, is the enemy of the father but is dedicated to a much more progressive "Let's leap into the future, let's leap over all of this garbage that has contaminated humanity for 10K years. Let's find what we really are, which are an enlightened, friendly, joyous species."'

Coppola - who's wanted to make Megalopolis since 1982 - sold a piece of his wine empire in order to self-finance the movie, which will be the first to shoot at Prysm Stages' LED volume stage.

The legendary Godfather director also cast his younger sister Talia Shire, nephew Jason Schwartzman, and Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman (despite resurfaced sexual assault allegations).

Francis' star-studded ensemble also includes Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Forest Whitaker, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Driver, Grace VanderWaal, James Remar, and D.B. Sweeney.