Lionsgate released a trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s “ Megalopolis ,” earlier this week which gave viewers the first official look at the science fiction drama starring Adam Driver. The film – which was aimed to be poised as a work of art that would be long remembered, much like Coppola’s previous films such as “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” – was said to have “polarized critics” after its May 16 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But, to drum up more positive buzz and drown out the division of the film, the trailer included multiple quotes from famous film critics that were later revealed to be phony.
As a result, the trailer was pulled the same day. “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for ‘Megalopolis,’” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety . “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.” Included were the fraudulent quotes pulled from critics panning Coppola’s previous work, but none of the quotes used – which were attributed to the likes of Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael – could be found in any of their actual reviews.
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman was incorrectly cited as calling the 1992 film, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” “a beautiful mess” while highlighting its “absurdity” when he reviewed the film for Entertainment Weekly at the tim.