Lionsgate pulls ‘Megalopolis’ trailer featuring fabricated review quotes
nme.comMegalopolis, after it was revealed to feature fabricated quotes from film critics.The trailer begins with a voiceover narration from cast member Laurence Fishburne, who says: “True genius is often misunderstood.”A procession of film review quotes then begin to flash on the screen, offering harsh critiques of Coppola’s past films.“A sloppy, self-indulgent movie,” reads an early review of The Godfather, while another critic declares Apocalypse Now “a spectacular failure”.However, as pointed out by Vulture‘s Bilge Ebiri, most of these lines did not exist in the original reviews.Having been called out for the misleading quotes, Lionsgate has since pulled the trailer and issued an apology.“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” it said. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process.”“We screwed up.
We are sorry.”Variety's @OwenGleiberman is incorrectly cited in the new "Megalopolis" trailer. Here's what thinks about it:“Even if you’re one of those people who don’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths.
Then again, the trivial scandal of all this is that the…— Katcy Stephan (@katcystephan) August 21, 2024Owen Gleiberman of Variety, who is also incorrectly cited in the trailer, said of the fabricated quotes: “Even if you’re one of those people who don’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths.
Then again, the trivial scandal of all this is that the whole Megalopolis trailer is built on a false narrative.”Ebiri, meanwhile, questioned the decision to market the film with fake quotes, given that that it will likely need critics to champion it.“Yes,.
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