“He reminds me of Dennis Hopper”: “Canceled” Hollywood Actor Shia LaBeouf Had a Risky Way of Working With Francis Ford Coppola on the Set of Megalopolis

Hollywood loves a good drama, and it’s not just the kind you see on screen. Francis Ford Coppola’s new movie, Megalopolis, is stirring up excitement—and a bit of controversy—because of its star-studded yet infamous cast.

This isn’t your typical film lineup. Instead, it features actors who’ve been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, including Shia LaBeouf, who has had his fair share of ups and downs with s*xual assault accusations.

Coppola, the genius behind classics like The Godfather, is used to dealing with intense actors. But the way he’s handling Megalopolis is something else. With actors like Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, and LaBeouf, this film is anything but ordinary.

Francis Ford Coppola Compared Shia LaBeouf’s Style to Dennis Hopper’s

In a recent chat with Rolling Stone, Francis Ford Coppola said he didn’t want his film to come across as just another preachy Hollywood movie telling everyone how to think. He pointed out that the cast included actors who had been “canceled” at some point, as well as some with very different political views—some super conservative and others very progressive.

Yet, despite all these differences, they all worked together on the same film. One of the names is Shia LaBeouf. For Coppola, LaBeouf is like a wild card in a game of poker—totally unpredictable! The 85-year-old said he found that LaBeouf likes to create a lot of tension with directors, saying:

Shia [LaBeouf] really took to it. I had no experience working with him prior to this, but he deliberately sets up a tension between himself and the director to an extreme degree.

This reminded Coppola of Dennis Hopper, who used to do the same. LaBeouf seems to be following in Hopper’s footsteps, using his own quirky methods and wacky style to bring something different to the film.

The $120 million (via Vulture) Megalopolis stars Adam Driver as an architect named Cesar Catilina who dreams of turning a city into a perfect place. He uses his fancy new material, megalon, to help make it happen.

Other Than the Controversial Cast, Megalopolis Itself is Steeped in Controversy

Besides the drama over its cast, as the film gets closer to release, it has been hit with a bunch of problems that have caused more headaches. Recently, Lionsgate messed up big time by putting fake quotes in their trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Megalopolis.

They used made-up praise from famous critics like Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, which later turned out to have been generated by AI. When it was exposed, Lionsgate quickly yanked the trailer and apologized.

Adding to the drama, Coppola has been caught on video kissing extras on set including one named Rayna Menz. Although Menz has played down the kiss (via Deadline), saying the video is “gross.”

Megalopolis is set to release on 27th September, 2024.