The trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis has been withdrawn by Lionsgate because the clip included fabricated quotes from real film critics about the filmmaker’s previous works. The studio, responsible for distribution of the film in the US, apologised to the critics and to Mr Coppola “for this inexcusable error in our vetting process”. “We screwed up,” Lionsgate said in a statement on Wednesday.
Megalopolis, self-funded by Mr Coppola, received mixed reviews at this year’s Cannes film festival. The now-dropped trailer may have been a play off that lukewarm reception, attempting to show that critics aren’t always the best judges by going back in time to show negative reviews for past Coppola films. “Genius is often misunderstood,” says Megalopolis co-star Laurence Fishburne in a voice-over.
But those negative reviews were manufactured. The spot included a quote from critic Pauline Kael as writing The Godfather was “diminished by its artsiness”, when her actual review was decidedly positive. Similarly, critic Rex Reed’s apparent dig at Apocalypse Now - “an epic piece of trash” - was made up.
And the late critic Roger Ebert’s alleged insult of the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula - “A triumph of style over substance" - appears to be taken from his review of a different film by a different director, Tim Burton's Batman. It is unclear how the quotes were created. The trailer was viewed more than 1.
3 million times the day it was posted online.