A trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s film “Megalopolis” was recalled Wednesday because the critic quotes it used were fabricated.
Lionsgate, the dystopian epic’s US distributor, told NBC News they pulled the trailer because “we messed up.”
The trailer also included critics’ comments about Coppola’s other films that didn’t actually appear in the reviews of “Megalopolis.”
“Lionsgate is immediately withdrawing the trailer for ‘Megalopolis,'” a spokesperson for the studio told NBC News on Thursday. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved, Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this unforgivable error in our review process. We failed, and we are sorry.”
The trailer, released on Wednesday, features quotes from prominent film critics highlighting the polarizing aspects of Coppola’s previous works — an attempt to change the reception of the film that divided audiences at Cannes earlier this year, according to a Variety report about the festival.
But those critiques were misquoted or untrue.
Variety reported that Owen Gleiberman was misquoted in Entertainment Weekly as calling Coppola’s 1992 film “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” a “beautiful mess.”
Roger Ebert was quoted as saying that Bram Stoker’s Dracula was “a triumph of style over substance,” but he was actually saying this in a 1989 review of Batman, not Dracula, Variety reports.
Pauline Kael has been quoted as saying that “The Godfather” was “devalued by its artistry,” but those words were not included in her March 1972 New Yorker review of the film, according to the Associated Press.
Lionsgate did not comment on why the incorrect quote appeared in the trailer.
“Megalopolis” will be released in U.S. theaters on September 27th.
