Lionsgate has pulled its brand-new trailer to Francis Ford Coppola‘s Megalopolis after it was revealed it used fabricated reviews from real critics regarding the filmmaker’s former films.
“We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and [his studio] American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process,” the studio stated. “We screwed up. We are sorry.”
The trailer began with a voice-over from co-star Laurence Fishburne who intoned, “True genius is often misunderstood.”
It then shows bad reviews allegedly earned from Coppola’s Oscar-winning epic The Godfather, claiming The Village Voice‘s Andrew Sarris called it “A sloppy, self-indulgent movie.”
Coppola’s 1979 classic Apocalypse Now was also trashed by name, as was 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the latter purportedly panned by both the late Roger Ebert and veteran reviewer Owen Gleiberman.
Variety discovered that Ebert’s alleged diss of that film — “a triumph of style over substance” — was lifted from his review of Tim Burton‘s 1989 blockbuster Batman.
Unlike Ebert, Gleiberman is still alive, and he’s none too happy, he tells the trade for which he works. “Even if you’re one of those people who don’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths,” he said, noting “the whole Megalopolis trailer is built on a false narrative.”
He continues, “Critics loved The Godfather. And though Apocalypse Now was divisive, it received a lot of crucial critical support.”
Cheekily, he added, “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.”
Not coincidentally, Megalopolis debuted in May at the Cannes International Film Festival to unkind reviews. Its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 53%.
Lionsgate will release Megalopolis in theaters on Sept. 27.
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