Lionsgate Removes Megalopolis Trailer After Fake Film Critic Quotes Detected
An attempt at using self-deprecating humor to promote Francis Ford Coppola‘s new movie Megalopolis has backfired.
The first full trailer for the dystopian Megalopolis, featuring actors such as Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza, was released Aug. 21. It began by featuring negative quotes from film critics about the director’s past projects. However, there was just one catch: They were made up.
Amid the controversy, distributor Lionsgate pulled the video and issued an apology.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a spokesperson said in an Aug. 22 statement to E! News. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and [production company] American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”
Among the fake quotes seen in the trailer: Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman was falsely cited as calling Coppola’s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula “a beautiful mess” when he first reviewed the film for Entertainment Weekly at the time of its release.