The latest trailer for Megalopolis, the upcoming film starring Adam Driver and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, has been retracted by distributor Lionsgate after it was found to contain fabricated movie review quotes.
“Lionsgate is immediately pulling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a spokesperson for the company told. “We sincerely apologize to the critics involved, as well as to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope, for this unacceptable error in our vetting process. We made a mistake and we are sorry.”
The trailer, which was initially released on Wednesday, Aug. 21, showcased scenes from Megalopolis along with title cards featuring negative quotes attributed to critics commenting on some of Coppola’s past films.
One quote attributed to the late Pauline Kael from The New Yorker described The Godfather as being “diminished by its artsiness.” Another quote from the late Andrew Sarris from The Village Voice labeled it as “a sloppy, self-indulgent movie.”
Megalopolis Movie
However, these statements do not appear in the actual reviews written by Kael or Sarris in 1972. Similarly, quotes attributed to critics Rex Reed and the late Vincent Canby and Roger Ebert were also found to be fictitious.
Megalopolis, a project that Coppola, 85, wrote, directed, and produced with a personal investment of $120 million, features a star-studded cast including Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Grace VanderWaal, Shia LaBeouf, and Dustin Hoffman, along with Coppola’s sister Talia Shire and her son Jason Schwartzman.
The film made headlines during its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, receiving mixed reviews and generating controversy over reports of alleged inappropriate behavior by Coppola on set.
The now-withdrawn trailer included the list of misleading quotes criticizing Coppola’s earlier works, accompanied by a voiceover from Fishburne stating, “True genius is often misunderstood. One filmmaker has always been ahead of his time.”
Megalopolis is set to have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September, with a wide release scheduled for Sept. 27.
