Recently it has come out that Coppola has inappropriately touched and kissed extras without their consent on the set of his latest film. This is obviously reason enough not to support the film, but if you know anything about Coppola’s history with abusers, this should come as no surprise.

In 1989, Francis Ford Coppola’s protégé, Victor Salva, sexually assaulted a child actor, a 12 year-old named Nathan Forrest Winters, on the set of a film that Coppola produced.

Coppola defended and protected Salva, hooked him up with expensive lawyers, resulting in a reduced prison sentence of only 15 months, most of which was spent in a cushy rehabilitation center for sex criminals. Coppola remained friends with Salva and visited him in jail. After his release, Salva returned to Hollywood with the help of Coppola, who would continue to produce several of his films.

After Salva’s arrest, Winters was forced to complete ADR on the film he was abused on, in Coppola’s own home. Coppola, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Hollywood, threatened to sue 12 year-old Winters for breach of contract for trying to leave the project. Coppola told Winters he’d never work in Hollywood again, and he didn’t.

In 2006, Coppola said,

“You have to remember, while this was a tragedy, that the difference in age between Victor and the boy was very small — Victor was practically a child himself.”

Salva was 29 at the time while Winters was 12. In fact, Salva had been grooming and sexually abusing Winters from the age of 6.

To hear Winters tell his story: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M9ATFAYsEk

  • TheModerateTankie [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    ‘Megalopolis’ is a piece of s—t

    You’ve been warned various times already. You were warned when the Guardian reported this spring that crew members on “Megalopolis” described its making, paid for entirely by Coppola thanks to his fortune in winemaking, as a “train wreck.” You were warned when that same article leveled allegations that the old man would sexually harass female crew members (barf) and burn hours of shooting time just hanging out and smoking weed instead of working (OK I respect it). Coppola has denied the allegations, and has sued Variety for its own investigation into his reported wrongdoing. In its introduction, the written complaint in that suit includes the sentence, “Some people are jealous and resentful of genius.” Go ahead and take that sentence as a warning, too.

    LMAO

    Fucking “auteurs”.