Francis Ford Coppola, the legendary film director of The Godfather trilogy, hospitalized in Italy
Francis Ford Coppola, the famous American filmmaker of The Godfather, was taken to the hospital in Rome on Tuesday morning.
The 86-year-old filmmaker was taken to the Policlinico Tor Vergata, a public hospital in Rome, according to the news agency ANSA.
Dr. Andrea Natale, a well-known cardiac cardiologist who has been treating Coppola for more than 30 years, was due to give him an update.
Ansa said that the famous director was in Italy for the Magna Graecia Film Festival to show his 2024 sci-fi thriller "Megalopolis."
Speaking to a crowd, he reportedly told them, “Young people tell me the world is a mess, but I tell them there’s no problem that humanity can’t solve.”
“We must build a great new future, and do it together for the sake of our children. And tonight, we’re taking a leap into the future,” Coppola added.
The movie, which Coppola paid for with $120 million on his own money, had a 10-minute standing ovation at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, nevertheless.
“I don’t care, I never cared about money,” he said at the time. “In the end there are so many people when they die that say, ‘I wish I had done this, I wish I had done that.’”
“But when I die I’m gonna say ‘I got to do this. I got to see my daughter [Sofia] win an Oscar, and I got to make wine, and I got to make all the movies I wanted to make. And I’m going to be so busy thinking about what I got to do that when I die I won’t notice it,” Coppola added.
We don't know much about the project yet, but Coppola hinted that it won't be about the mafia, like his famous Godfather trilogy. “Calabria is a region very famous for its mafia, but that doesn’t interest me. My film instead will focus solely on the beautiful things about this region.”
Coppola was married to Eleanor Jessie Coppola from 1963 till she died in 2024. They had three kids together: Roman Coppola, who is 60, Sofia Coppola, who is 54, and Gian-Carlo Coppola, who died in 1986 at the age of 22.
