Director Francis Ford Coppola doing 'fine' after cardiac procedure in Rome

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Francis Ford Coppola, the acclaimed American director of "The Godfather" movies and "Apocalypse Now," underwent a non-emergency cardiac procedure in a Rome hospital and is doing fine, he and a U.S.-based representative said on Tuesday.

"Mr. Coppola went in for a scheduled update procedure" performed by renowned Italian-born cardiologist Dr. Andrea Natale "and is resting nicely," the representative said in response to Italian media reports that the director was hospitalised. "All is well."

Coppola, 86, has been a patient of Natale for more than 30 years, the representative said.

The filmmaker was admitted on Tuesday to the Policlinico Tor Vergata, a public hospital in the Italian capital, news agency ANSA reported.

The U.S.-based representative declined to give any details about the nature of Coppola's medical procedure, but said: "There was not an emergency. He went to the hospital in a car. He had a scheduled appointment."

Coppola posted a photograph of himself on Instagram appearing relaxed and smiling with a message reassuring fans, "I am well."

"Da Dada (what my kids call me) is fine, taking an opportunity while in Rome to do the update of my 30-year-old afib procedure with its inventor, a great Italian doctor - Dr. Andrea Natale," it said. He did not elaborate further.

The term "a-fib" in medical parlance is short for atrial fibrillation, a type of abnormal heart rhythm. Natale, currently the executive director of the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute, is an electrophysiology specialist who pioneered several treatments and devices for the treatment of such disorders.

Coppola was in Italy to promote his latest movie, the science-fiction epic "Megalopolis," a $120 million self-funded production about a visionary architect's quest to transform a futuristic version of New York City called New Rome into a utopian community.

The film, which has drawn mixed reviews and struggled at the box office following its 2024 debut at the Cannes Film Festival, was reported to have received a special screening at the Magna Graecia Film Festival in Catanzaro, Italy.

The Italian-American director has won five Academy Awards, four of them for his work on the first two films in "The Godfather" trilogy, widely considered by cinema buffs to rank among the greatest movies of all time.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Giselda Vagnoni in Rome and Ismail Shakil in Ottwa; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Michael Perry)