Lionsgate releases Megalopolis trailer with fabricated quotes Entertainment and Arts News报道: Lionsgate发布Megalopolis预告片，使用虚假引语
Lionsgate has withdrawn the trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s high-budget film Megalopolis, as the critic quotes it featured were found to be fake.
Admitting their mistake, the studio immediately removed the new trailer that had been released on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Lionsgate stated: “We deeply apologize to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this unacceptable error in our vetting process. We messed up. We are sorry.”
The trailer had included quotes from critics such as Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, and Owen Gleiberman about other Coppola films, but the quotes were never actually in their reviews.
A voiceover in the trailer said: “Genius is often misunderstood”.
The acclaimed filmmaker, who is 85 years old, has directed more than 20 films, including The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The misattributed quotes in the trailer included one from Kael claiming that The Godfather was “diminished by its artsiness,” when in reality, Kael praised the film in her 1972 review for The New Yorker.
Ebert did not describe Bram Stoker’s Dracula as “a triumph of style over substance” in his 1992 Chicago Sun-Times review, nor did Gleiberman refer to the film as “a beautiful mess” or criticize its “absurdity” in his Entertainment Weekly review from the same year.
Quotes from John Simon, Rex Reed, and Vincent Canby regarding Apocalypse Now – labeling the 1979 film as “a spectacular failure,” “an epic piece of trash,” and “hollow at the core,” respectively – also did not appear in their reviews.
While the origins of most of the quotes remain unclear, Ebert’s “style over substance” statement has been linked back to his review of Batman in 1989.
Megalopolis received mixed reviews after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
The film has recently faced allegations of misconduct on set, following leaked videos showing Coppola hugging and kissing extras during a club scene. Sky News has reached out to Coppola’s representatives for a response.
A labor of love, Coppola financed the sci-fi movie – which has been in the making for several decades – entirely on his own.
Described as a Roman epic fable set in a modern America, the star-studded cast includes Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, and Dustin Hoffman.
This will be his first film release since 2011.
Megalopolis will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month, before hitting cinemas at the end of September.
Sky News has contacted Lionsgate for a response.
