Studio Pulls Megalopolis Trailer Due to Fake Reviews

The trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis has been pulled by Lionsgate because the clip included fabricated quotes from real film critics about the filmmaker’s previous works.

The studio, which is responsible for distributing the film in the United States, apologized to critics and to Mr. Coppola “for this inexcusable error in our selection process.”

“We made a mistake,” Lionsgate said in a statement Wednesday.

Megalopolis, which Mr. Coppola self-financed, received mixed reviews at this year’s Cannes film festival.

The newly released trailer may have been an attempt to capitalize on the mixed reception, to show that critics aren’t always the best judges by going back in time and showing negative reviews of Coppola’s past films. “Genius is often misunderstood,” Megalopolis co-star Laurence Fishburne says in a voiceover.

But these negative reviews were fabricated.

The spot included a quote from critic Pauline Kael that The Godfather was “diminished by its artistry,” despite her review being decidedly positive.

Likewise, critic Rex Reed’s apparent dig at Apocalypse Now – “an epic piece of shit” – was fabricated.

And the insult that the late critic Roger Ebert is said to have leveled at Bram Stoker’s Dracula – “A triumph of style over substance” – seems to have been taken from his review of another film by another director, Tim Burton’s Batman.

It is not clear how the quotes were created.

The trailer was viewed more than 1.3 million times on the day it was released.

The epic fantasy film, starring Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza and Nathalie Emmanuel, reportedly cost Mr Coppola $120 million (£91.6 million).

In his review, The BBC’s Nicholas Barber called it a “pretentious, pretentious curiosity.”similar to someone who remembers a “crazy dream.”

The film is scheduled to be released in U.S. theaters on September 27.

The filming of Megalopolis was again at the center of controversy in May, after Variety obtained footage of Coppola in a nightclub scene on the set of Megalopolis last year, in which he appears to try to kiss female extras. Sources told the Guardian that the acclaimed director behaved inappropriately toward women in the film.

Mr. Coppola has denied the allegations, telling The New York Times in June: “I’m not very sensitive. I’m too shy.”