Francis Ford Coppola undergoes scheduled surgery in Rome: "I'm fine"

American film director Francis Ford Coppola, 86, confirmed last night that he is doing well after undergoing scheduled heart surgery at a hospital in Rome, in a post on his social media. "Dada (as my children call me) is doing well," wrote the director, who is hospitalized at the Policlinico Tor Vergata in Rome.

"I'm taking this opportunity to be in Rome to update the thirty-year-old procedure for treating atrial fibrillation with its inventor, a great Italian physician, Dr. Andrea Natale . I'm fine!" added the director of The Godfather, according to the EFE news agency.

The 86-year-old Oscar-winning Italian-American filmmaker underwent a scheduled heart procedure, but a mild arrhythmia he experienced before the operation forced doctors to place him under observation, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera . Coppola was in Portland, Oregon, last Sunday promoting his latest film, " Megalopolis," and arrived in Italy "with maximum discretion," according to the newspaper, to undergo the surgery. The film director regularly visits the Mediterranean country and was also scouting locations for his next project this summer.

Atrial fibrillation is one of the most common arrhythmias, and sometimes requires minimally invasive surgery that uses catheters to isolate or destroy the areas of the heart responsible for the arrhythmia. The goal is to restore a regular heart rhythm and reduce the risk of stroke and complications.

Atrial fibrillation is one of the most common arrhythmias and sometimes requires minimally invasive surgery.

Dr. Andrea Natale is considered a world authority on electrophysiology. Born in Italy, he directs the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute in the United States and performed the first procedures using cutting-edge technologies such as pulsed field ablation.

Coppola spent almost the entire summer in Italy looking for locations for his next film, and in mid-July he was welcomed by a crowd of young people in Soverato (south), as a special guest at the preview of the Magna Grecia Film Festival.

The Apocalypse Now director has close ties to Italy, and the Basilicata region in particular. His grandfather, Agostino , emigrated from Bernalda in the early 1900s, and on May 1, 1989, Coppola became an honorary citizen of the town where he often spends his holidays.