Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola‘s self-financed $120 million epic “Megalopolis” suffers yet another blow. After a troubled production, it opened at Cannes to reviews that regarded it as indulgent and muddled. Leaning into the bad press, Lionsgate released a second trailer for the film, which contains negative reviews of Coppola’s other films.
The problem is, that these reviews range from misattributed to flat-out fictitious. And, as it turns out, they were AI-generated.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for ‘Megalopolis,’” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “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.”
The Pulled “Megalopolis” Trailer
These quotes include The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael saying “The Godfather,” is “diminished by its artsiness.” The Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris also criticizes it as a “sloppy self-indulgent movie.” There are other fictitious quotes from renowned critics like Roger Ebert, John Simon, Stanley Kauffmann, Vincent Canby, and Rex Reed.
While most of these excerpts focused on Coppola’s undeniable masterpieces, in an attempt to show that initial negative press doesn’t a bad movie make. Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman’s fake comments about 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s DraculaI,” while he was still working for Entertainment Weekly, breaks with this. Gleiberman called it “a beautiful mess” and pointed out its “absurdity.” …We don’t think most viewers are falling all over themselves to praise that film.
“Even if you’re one of those people who don’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths,” Gleiberman 100% really said. “Then again, the trivial scandal of all this is that the whole ‘Megalopolis’ trailer is built on a false narrative Critics loved ‘The Godfather.’ And though ‘Apocalypse Now’ was divisive, it received a lot of crucial critical support. As far as me calling ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ ‘a beautiful mess,’ I only wish I’d said that! Regarding that film, it now sounds kind.”
Ebert’s review was also about “Dracula,” which he called “a triumph of style over substance.” However, it’s really from his 1989 review of “Batman.” Meaning the only quote that seems to not be flat out fake was seriously misattributed.
Lionsgate has since said the person in marketing responsible for the quotes and ad has been fired.
“Megalopolis” hit theaters nationwide on September 27th. You can check out the (hopfully truthful) trailer below:
