Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ Trailer Pulled After Outcry Over Made-Up Movie Critic Quotes
“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.”
Francis Ford Coppola clapped back at his critics with the second trailer for Megalopolis, his self-financed fantasy epic that hits U.S. theaters on Sept. 27— but then was forced to remove the teaser after quotes from famous movie critics panning his films were found to be made-up.
In the new trailer, which opened with the line, “True genius is often misunderstood,” the legendary director zinged film critics who have panned his most iconic movies. From 1972’s The Godfather to 1979’s Apocalypse Now, it showed excerpts from famous critics’ allegedly scathing reviews before unspooling the actual trailer.
“One filmmaker has always been ahead of his time,” intoned narrator Laurence Fishburne, who starred in Apocalypse Now as well as Megalopolis. The new trailer seemed to set up Coppola’s latest epic, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews, as yet another film that will win over audiences and become a classic film, proving the critics wrong once again.
But movie studio Lionsgate quickly recalled the Megalopolis trailer after outcry that it featured a littany of fabricated quotes from famous film critics, reports Variety.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for ‘Megalopolis,’” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “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 video included several quotes from critics panning Coppola’s previous work — but none of the phrases, attributed to the likes of Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael, could be found in any of their reviews.
Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman was incorrectly cited as calling the 1992 film “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” “a beautiful mess” and highlighting its “absurdity” when he reviewed the film for Entertainment Weekly, where he worked at the time of its release.
“Even if you’re one of those people who don’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths. Then again, the trivial scandal of all this is that the whole ‘Megalopolis’ trailer is built on a false narrative,” Gleiberman said of the trailer’s falsified quotes. “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.”
Coppola, who started writing the Megalopolis screenplay in the early 1980s, has estimated he has poured $120 million of his own money into the film over the decades-long development process, reports Variety.
Starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight and Jason Schwartzman, “Megalopolis” follows the collapse of a futuristic American empire while referencing the fall of Rome. In the latest trailer, architect Cesar Catilina (Driver) designs futuristic New York City as radical political figures threaten to “destroy the forever.”
