Yahoo Lifestyle Trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's “Megalopolis” Removed by Studio Over Fake Movie Critic Quotes: 'We Screwed Up'
Quotes attributed to critics in the recent ‘Megalopolis’ trailer do not appear in those critics’ reviews
Courtesy of Lionsgate
Adam Driver in 'Megalopolis'The newest trailer for Megalopolis, the upcoming Adam Driver-starring movie from Francis Ford Coppola, has been pulled by distributor Lionsgate after it was discovered to include fake movie review quotes.
"Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesman told PEOPLE. “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 trailer in question was released earlier on Wednesday, Aug. 21. It includes glimpses of Megalopolis footage, as well as title cards consisting of negative quotes about some of Coppola’s previous movies. A quote about The Godfather, attributed to the late Pauline Kael at The New Yorker, says the film is "diminished by its artsiness." A quote from the late Andrew Sarris at The Village Voice refers to it as “a sloppy, self-indulgent movie.”
However, as Vulture reported, those words cannot be found in Kael or Sarris’ genuine reviews of The Godfather from 1972. Quotes attributed to critic Rex Reed and the late critics Vincent Canby and Roger Ebert similarly do not appear in their reviews.
Related: What Is Megalopolis About? Everything to Know About Francis Ford Coppola’s $120 Million Project
Megalopolis, which Coppola, 85, wrote, directed and produced with $120 million of his own money, costars Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Grace VanderWaal, Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman, plus Coppola’s sister Talia Shire and her son Jason Schwartzman. It made a splash during its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, earning mixed reviews from critics and facing reports of Coppola having engaged in allegedly inappropriate behavior on set.
The now-rescinded trailer features the list of quotes disparaging Coppola’s earlier works and a voiceover from Fishburne, intoning, “True genius is often misunderstood. One filmmaker has always been ahead of his time.”
Andreas Rentz/Getty
Francis Ford Coppola in May 2024Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Megalopolis will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September, before its Sept. 27 release.
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