The controversy surrounding the Megalopolis trailer and its fake review quotes, explained
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Confused about what’s been going on with the latest trailer for the movie Megalopolis from Francis Ford Coppola? Don’t worry; we’re here to help.
Lionsgate apologized on Wednesday after a new trailer for the latest Francis Ford Coppola film Megalopolis featured fake pull quotes from notable film critics.
Trying to set Megalopolis up as a film destined to be ahead of its time, the trailer tried to position past Coppola films like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now as panned by legendary film critics at the time of their release.
Well, the big problem with the advertisement was that some of these quotes didn’t actually exist. Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri soon discovered that various quotes attributed to film critics like Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, Vincent Canby and Andrew Sarris, among others, didn’t actually link up with their reviews.
Certainly, Coppola has directed his fair share of films that received mixed reception at the time of their release and later earned praise upon revisit. But the pull quotes in the trailer seemingly got pulled out of thin air.
Variety confirmed Ebiri’s reporting, as the pull quotes in the trailer didn’t match with the critics named and essentially negated part of the argument of the trailer (which you can watch below).
Half of the trailer for Coppola's Megalopolis is quotes of bad reviews of Francis Ford Coppola's previous films.
The only problem is that all of the quotes are made up!
Lionsgate is trying to remove the trailer from the internet so I've posted it here. pic.twitter.com/a2hShrdqxt
— Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) August 21, 2024
Lionsgate later disavowed the trailer by pulling it down and apologized to the critics falsely attributed in the trailer, Coppola and his production company American Zoetrope.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis, a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement, per 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.”
Megalopolis is still slated for a Sept. 27 wide release following its debut at May’s Cannes Film Festival. The project garnered divisive reactions at its premiere.