The last one movie trailer «Megalopolis» tried to attack the film critics, referring to their allegedly negative reviews of Francis Coppola’s previous works, but it turned out that the quotes were a complete fabrication.
«Lionsgate is removing the trailer for «Megalopolis», a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety. «We sincerely apologize to critics, as well as to Francis Ford Coppola, for this mistake. We screwed up. We’re sorry».
The trailer, released on Wednesday morning, was intended to position Coppola’s latest film as a work of art that will stand the test of time, much like the director’s previous masterpieces such as «The Godfather» or «Apocalypse Now», and included several quotes from reviewers who had allegedly criticized the aforementioned works.
At the same time, none of the phrases attributed to Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael in the trailer were found in their reviews.
«Even if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths. Again, the trivial scandal in all of this is that the entire trailer for «Megalopolis» is built on a false narrative», — said Variety critic Owen Gleiberman.
It is unclear where most of the quotes in the trailer came from (except for Roger Ebert’s comment about «the triumph of style over substance», which was mistakenly attributed to «Dracula» instead of «Batman» from 1989), but I suspect that it was not without the hallucinations of a tool like ChatGPT.
At the same time, the trailer with the fake quotes was just one of a series of scandals that accompanied the production of Coppola’s new film. Earlier, Variety posted a video of the director trying to kiss a young extra, while several other crew members talked about his «unprofessional behavior» during the work.
The film’s production, as previously reported, cost $120 million, and Coppola (for whom the film will be the first to be released in 15 years) allegedly financed it entirely himself. The director conceived his project back in the late 1970s, but only began actual work in the 2010s.
«Megalopolis» — is an epic fable from ancient Rome, set in modern America. An accident destroys the metropolis of New Rome, and the architect Caesar Catiline (Adam Driver), who has the ability to stop time, tries to build a utopian city from scratch.
«Megalopolis» will debut in Ukrainian cinemas on September 26.
Source: Variety