The latest trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming film ‘Megalopolis’ has been pulled offline by Lionsgate, after it was found to contain fabricated quotes from famous film critics.
The decision came on Wednesday, the same day the trailer was released, which shows negative yet fabricated reviews of Coppola’s previous works like “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather”.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a studio spokesperson told Variety. “We apologize to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this unforgivable mistake in our review process. We messed up. We’re sorry.”
Misquotes cited famous film critics such as Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, among others. At one point, Kael was misquoted as describing “The Godfather” as “diminished by his artistry.”
Another mistake was a comment by Roger Ebert about Tim Burton’s “Batman”, which was mistakenly presented as a criticism of Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”.
The quotes were meant to show how wrong previous critics have been about Coppola’s “genius,” as the voiceover put it.
The trailer accident is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding the $120 million self-financed production. Just last month, videos appeared to show Coppola grabbing and kissing young female extras on set without their consent.
One of the women involved, Rayna Menz, later found out dispute the claimsand said she felt comfortable on set and was blindsided by the videos.
Described as a Roman epic set in a fictional modern America, “Megalopolis” stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza and Dustin Hoffman and is slated for a September 27 US release.