Megalopolis trailer quoted critics calling the movie ‘an epic piece of trash’ – but they never said that

‘We screwed up,’ distribution partner Lionsgate says

Lionsgate pulled its trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed magnum opus Megalopolis after it was revealed to feature fabricated quotes from film critics.

The trailer was released on Wednesday and showed quotes from some of the most renowned critics in the industry offering harsh critiques of Coppola’s past films.

Pauline Kael of The New Yorker described The Godfather as being “diminished by its artsiness” in a review, according to the trailer, while Andrew Sarris of Village Voice called it a “sloppy self-indulgent movie”.

Bilge Ebiri of Vulture, however, soon pointed out that most of these lines didn’t exist in the original reviews.

The trailer similarly claimed that Roger Ebert had described Bram Stoker’s Dracula as “a triumph of style over substance”. The line is actually from Ebert’s review of the 1989 film Batman and doesn’t show up in his review of Dracula.

Ebert, in fact, seemed to like the film. “The movie is an exercise in feverish excess, and for that if for little else, I enjoyed it.”

In a similar vein, while Daily News critic Rex Reed didn’t particularly enjoy Apocalypse Now, he never called it “an epic piece of trash”.

Called out for the misleading quotes, Lionsgate pulled the trailer.

“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” it said. “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.”

Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in Megalopolis (Lionsgate)

Owen Gleiberman of Variety was also featured in the trailer.

“Even if you’re one of those people who don’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths,” the critic said. “Then again, the trivial scandal of all this is that the whole Megalopolis trailer is built on a false narrative.”

Ebiri questioned the decision to market the film using fabricated quotes despite the fact that some critics did dislike several films by Coppola which ended up becoming classics.

“Yes, Coppola has built a career on films that perplex some critics and audiences when they first come out but are eventually revealed to be visionary works of art,” he said. “And, yes, Megalopolis will be a divisive movie.”

“Taking on critics might be an exciting and cathartic marketing tactic, but I suspect Megalopolis will need critics championing it when it actually comes out. And making up fake quotes from our heroes is probably not the best way to get us on your side.”

The Independent has reached out to Lionsgate for comment.

Megalopolis debuted at the Cannes Film Festival where it was met with mixed reviews. It is set to release in theatres in September.

The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab gave Megalopolis three stars, describing it as being “deeply flawed and very eccentric”.

The film stars Adam Driver as Cesar, an artist-inventor nursing dreams of a utopian metropolis at odds with the city’s mayor, played by Giancarlo Esposito. It also stars Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.

In a recent analysis of Coppola’s work, Macnab noted the director’s struggle to find funding for his latest work, which was produced over decades.

“It was as if the Hollywood executives were looking for payback for all those past occasions when Coppola had criticised their way of doing business or when he had taken their money and produced a box-office turkey, such as the romantic musical One from the Heart (1981) or his car designer biopic Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988).”

Coppola has been accused of inappropriate behaviour on set, including reportedly “pulling women to sit on his lap” and “trying to kiss some of the topless and scantily-clad female extras”. Coppola has denied the allegations.

“My mother told me that if you make an advance towards a woman, it means you disrespect her, and the girls I had crushes on, I certainly didn’t disrespect them,” he said. “I’m not touchy-feely. I’m too shy.”