Megalopolis Trailer Withdrawn After Shocking Fake Review Quotes Are Found

Lionsgate decided to pull down the trailer for their new film, Megalopolis after fans figured out the trailer quoted falsified reviews for the Director’s previous films.

To say Megalopolis had a rocky production is putting it mildly. Director Francis Coppola (known for award-winning films like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now ) has been trying to get the film made for many years, even fronting $120 million to foot the production costs. But today, Lionsgate has decided to pull the new trailer off the internet due to reports suggesting the trailer used fake quotes coming from Coppola’s earlier films.

The trailer was released Wednesday morning, and it didn’t take long for people to figure out that the ‘bad reviews’ quoted in the trailer from films like The Godfather were fictional, it’s also worth mentioning a critic themselves noticed they didn’t write what was quoted in the trailer.

This is after the film has gotten questionable attention, specifically from The Guardian where Coppola himself suggested he was going to make “a really s*****, embarrassing, pompous film on an important subject, and I am doing it,” and the report further alleges the Director mismanaged time and wasted a lot of production hours. The report continues with allegations the Director acted inappropriately with female extras on set, claiming he was “trying to get them in the mood.”

The trailer could have been meant to show former bad reviews for Coppola masterpieces, to insert Megalopolis into the same camp as the films that were shown to have said bad reviews. Variety critic, Owen Gleiberman, was cited in the trailer as saying Bram Stoker’s Dracula is “a beautiful mess” where he himself suggested that wasn’t the case.

Gleiberman said “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,” continuing with the notion he wishes he said Dracula was ‘a beautiful mess,’ as it “sounds kind”.

Lionsgate has also issued an apology via Variety , saying “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.” after the trailer’s removal today.

Megalopolis hits theatres on September 27.