Short answers, pulled from the story.
John Milius wrote the first draft of Apocalypse Now in 1969. He received fifteen thousand dollars from Francis Ford Coppola to develop the script with a promise of another ten thousand if the project moved forward.
Principal photography began on the 20th of March 1976 when Coppola and his family flew to Manila to begin filming. Typhoon Olga struck just days later destroying forty to eighty percent of the sets at Iba and forcing production to shut down on the 26th of May 1976.
Martin Sheen suffered a near-fatal heart attack on the 5th of March 1977 while struggling to walk a quarter mile before reaching help. His brother Joe Estevez filled in for scenes requiring close-ups until Sheen recovered enough to return on April 19.
Three sneak previews occurred in Westwood Los Angeles on May 11 attended by two thousand paying customers who waited up to six hours in line. Rona Barrett previewed the film on Good Morning America television calling it a disappointing failure.
Walter Murch spent four months assembling the soundtrack after Coppola gave him the task in summer 1977. He decided to restore narration by recording it himself since Martin Sheen was unavailable and fabricated jungle atmosphere using available materials.