‘Megalopolis’ Trailer Pulled After Attributing False Quotes to Critics

Lionsgate has announced that the trailer for Megalopolis released this Wednesday, 21, was withdrawn for presenting false quotes from film critics.

“Lionsgate is immediately withdrawing our trailer for Megalopolis“, said a company spokesperson (via Variety). “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved, Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our verification process. We messed up. We apologize.”

In the trailer in question, negative comments about the films Coppola are attributed to critics such as Andrew Sarriswhich never described The Godfather (1972) as “a sloppy, self-indulgent film” — as the video indicated. Quotes from Pauline Kael, Rex Reed, Vincent Canby and Roger Ebert mentioned in the trailer are also not included in the respective reviews of the feature films.

The criticism of Ebert was found in the review of Batman (1989), and not in that of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). Owen Gleibermancurrently of Varietyalso had quotes falsely attributed to him: “Even if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths. On the other hand, the trivial scandal of all this is that the entire trailer for Megalopolis is built on a false narrative.”

“The critics loved it The Godfather. And although Apocalypse Now has been divisive, it has received a lot of crucial critical support. As for me calling it Bram Stoker’s Dracula of ‘a beautiful chaos’, I wish I had said that! In relation to this film, now that seems kind”, he declared.