Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola has been hospitalised in Italy, according to reports.
The 86-year-old director was reportedly admitted to Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome on Tuesday morning while visiting the country for the Magna Grecia Film Festival in Calabria, where he had been promoting his movie, Megalopolis.
Italian news agency ANSA reports that Coppola had been in the region scouting locations for a new project due to begin production this autumn.
While there has been no official confirmation, several outlets, including La Repubblica, have suggested the director was suffering from atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm condition that can cause an irregular and sometimes rapid heartbeat.
According to La Repubblica, Coppola had been preparing for a long-scheduled surgery when the heart-related episode occurred.
The NHS describes atrial fibrillation as a condition that “causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate,” which can increase the risk of stroke and other heart complications.
Coppola, whose storied career includes The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, appeared on stage just days ago at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts after a screening of Megalopolis.
The £90 million epic, funded entirely by Coppola himself, received a lukewarm response from critics and grossed just £10.5 million at the box office.
In recent public appearances, the Oscar-winning director spoke about the loss of his wife Eleanor Coppola, a fellow filmmaker and documentarian, who died in April 2023 aged 87.
Coppola shared: “I lost my wife a year ago, around this time. But my attitude for death is that I always lived my life so that when I was at the moment approaching death, I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I wish I had done this and I wish I had done that.’ Instead, I say to myself, ‘I got to do this.’
“I got to see my daughter win an Oscar. I got to see my father win an Oscar. I’m going to be so busy saying all the things I got to do that when I die, I’m not going to notice it.
“When I die, I’m not going to notice it. You know how your electric toothbrush just shuts off when you least expect it? That’s what death is like.”
No official statement has yet been released regarding Coppola’s current condition.
The Standard has contacted Francis Ford Coppola’s rep for comment.
