Lionsgate recalled its new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis on Wednesday (Aug 21) amid revelations that critics’ quotes had been fabricated.
“Lionsgate is instantly recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesperson stated in a press release to The Related Press. “We provide our honest apologies to the critics concerned and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting course of. We screwed up. We’re sorry.”
The trailer, launched earlier Wednesday, included quotes from critics like Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert of different Coppola movies that didn’t really seem of their critiques. The intent, it appears, was to spotlight the vital divisiveness of now-classics like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, leaning into a number of the extra unfavourable reactions to Megalopolis, the self-financed US$120 million (S$157 million) epic opening in September.
The trailer attributed a quote to Kael that The Godfather was “diminished by its artsiness”. However Kael cherished The Godfather, and this phrase was not utilized in her March 1972 assessment of the movie for The New Yorker. Ebert additionally didn’t write that Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula was “a triumph of fashion over substance”. Quotes from Rex Reed and Vincent Canby, about Apocalypse Now, didn’t seem of their critiques both.
Megalopolis has been many years within the making, and it acquired many blended critiques upon its premiere on the Cannes Movie Competition earlier this yr. It has additionally come underneath scrutiny of late for alleged misconduct on set, after movies leaked of Coppola hugging and kissing extras throughout a membership scene. Representatives haven’t responded to the AP’s requests for remark in regards to the movies.
The movie is ready to have its North American premiere on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition subsequent month earlier than hitting theaters on Sep 27. It opens in Singapore on Sep 26.