"Megalopolis" movie trailer scandalized: what's the reason?

At the end of September, the first film in almost 15 years by the prominent American director Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis, is to be released. And this is an extraordinary event that both audiences and critics are looking forward to.

However, the film company Lionsgate, which is producing the film, has severely spoiled this expectation with a scandal. According to Mashable, the company released a trailer for the fantasy film that used fake quotes attributed to real movie critics.

It only took a few hours to expose this lie. And to force Lionsgate to apologize to both Coppola and the critics in question. In its apology, the company even used the expression screwed up, which can be translated as a rude "screwed up."

In the video that appeared online, the idea was to present the main character, played by Adam Driver, as a contradictory personality through a parallel with the film's director. "True genius is often misunderstood," said a voiceover. After that, quotes from allegedly famous film critics began to appear on the screen, speaking negatively about Coppola's old films, which are now highly regarded.

According to the trailer for Metropolis, Andrew Saris allegedly called The Godfather a "sloppy, selfish movie" that "doesn't know what it wants to be." Pauline Kael was credited with assessing the film as "bizarre". Vincent Canby and Rex Reed were "entrusted" to speak about Apocalypse Now. The former allegedly called it "empty at the core," and the latter called it "an epic piece of garbage." Roger Ebert's assessment of Bram Stoker's Dracula as "a triumph of style over substance" was put into the mouth of Roger Ebert, and Owen Gleiberman was "entrusted" to call it a "beautiful mess." The situation was made more dramatic by the fact that almost all of these film critics are now dead.

Almost immediately, the press and social media responded that all of these statements were falsely attributed to critics. None of them said such things about Coppola's work.

It took just a few hours of such publicity for Lionsgate, the distributor of Megalopolis, to apologize and announce that it was immediately removing the new trailer. "We sincerely apologize to the critics, as well as to Francis Ford Coppola and [Megalopolis production company] American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in the screening process. We screwed up. We are sorry," the statement reads.

It remains unclear how the fake quotes ended up in the movie trailer. And who is responsible for their appearance. Social media suggested that these harsh statements were actually generated by artificial intelligence. However, Lionsgate has not yet confirmed this theory.

Lionsgate's marketing strategy for Megalopolis draws parallels between the director and his protagonist as unrecognized geniuses. The film tells the story of César (Driver), an architect who has the ability to stop time and wants to build a utopia called New Rome. One of the key storylines is his relationship with the daughter of a corrupt mayor (Natalie Emmanuel and Giancarlo Esposito). The film also stars Shia Labeouf, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Voight.

Early screenings have received mixed reactions from viewers. The film worth $120 million left them rather bewildered and confused. However, Coppola has already said that he does not accept this criticism. "I really think it's inexcusable to attack a movie because it doesn't comply with current Hollywood rules, quoting unnamed sources who probably weren't at the screening and may not exist," the director said of those who didn't like his work.

Megalopolis will be released in Ukraine simultaneously with the rest of the world. The movie will be released on September 26.

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