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Lionsgate Pulls Megalopolis Trailer After Using Fake Critic Quotes
Aug
“We screwed up. We are sorry,” a representative for Lionsgate said.
Lionsgate has swiftly pulled the trailer for Francis Ford Coppola‘s upcoming film Megalopolis after it was discovered that the video featured fabricated quotes from renowned film critics. The trailer, which debuted on Wednesday, sparked backlash when journalists and social media users noticed that the quotes attributed to critics about Coppola’s past films, such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, were not authentic.
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, a Lionsgate spokesperson admitted the mistake, saying, “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis. We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”
The misleading quotes were attributed to legendary critics like Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Vincent Canby, and Roger Ebert, and were used to suggest that Coppola’s previous masterpieces were initially misunderstood. However, upon closer inspection, the quotes were found to be nonexistent or taken out of context. For instance, Kael’s supposed negative critique of The Godfather was contradicted by her actual review, where she praised the film as a great example of the merger of commerce and art.
Owen Gleiberman, a former Entertainment Weekly critic whose name appeared in the trailer with a fabricated quote about Bram Stoker’s Dracula, responded to the controversy, saying in Variety, “Even if you’re one of those people who don’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths.”
The trailer’s misleading approach appeared to be an attempt to frame Megalopolis, which received mixed reviews at Cannes, as a film that critics might not immediately appreciate—similar to how some of Coppola’s earlier works were initially received.
Megalopolis, which stars Adam Driver, Laurence Fishburne, and Nathalie Emmanuel, among others, is set for release on September 27. The film has already been surrounded by controversy, including allegations of inappropriate behavior on set by Coppola, which the director has denied.
Lionsgate’s recall of the trailer is an attempt to rectify the situation ahead of the film’s much-anticipated release.
