Megalopolis Trailer Removed After The Studio Used Fake Quotes To Promote The Movie

Erm…okay. I was about to publish my article for the trailer of Megalopolis until I read that Lionsgate fabricated fake quotes to promote the film and removed the trailer from YouTube. The studio then put out a retraction statement quote:

“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis. 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.”

I don’t know any other movie that has ever done that, but I have to say, that’s shockingly incompetent. If a studio was promoting the director’s previous work before the release of their latest one, they would have at least researched what the critics said before they started putting words into other people’s mouths. I mean…why? I don’t get it.

Image via IMDb/Lionsgate

So, here are some misquotes that the trailer put out online courtesy of the video from IGN. Here we go:

Misquotes about what critics said about The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974), and Apocalypse Now (1979)

-Andrew Sarris allegedly called The Godfather (1972) movie “A Sloppy Self-Indulgent Movie”.

-Pauline Kael allegedly described The Godfather as “Diminished by its Artsiness”— To add to this misquote, they got the movie Kael reviewed wrong. She reviewed The Godfather: Part II (1974)

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-Andrew Sarris allegedly stated that The Godfather “Doesn’t Know What It Wants To Be”

-Vincent Canby allegedly states that Apocalypse Now (1979) is “Hollow At The Core”

Okay… Now here are the real quotes of what critics said

Image via IMDb/Lionsgate

-Andrew Sarris of The Village Voice reviewing The Godfather states, “Coppola does his best to narrow the focus of The Godfather to manageably monstrous proportions. His film is neither tragedy nor sociology, but a saga of monsters with occasionally human expressions”.

-Pauline Kael of The New Yorker, (sourced from entertainment website, Scraps from the Loft) who reviewed The Godfather: Part II states, “This is a bicentennial picture that doesn’t insult the intelligence. It’s an epic vision of the corruption of America”.

-Vincent Canby from The New York Times reviewing Apocalypse Now states, “It’s as if alternate Conrad lines had been rewritten by Raymond Chandler, [a]nd the person responsible for ‘Nancy Drew’. It’s incredible.”

Image via IMDb/Lionsgate

I don’t know whether Coppola or the studio themselves decided to release fake critic statements about previous films, but it’s a sign they are not trustworthy. I thought about seeing this movie once upon a time. Not anymore. Anyway here is the trailer from IGN if anyone is still interested in seeing it. The movie did receive a mixed reception from May’s Cannes Film Festival. Not to mention the fact that Coppola himself is doing weird stuff like kissing female extras to get them in the mood. I will not stop anyone from wanting to see it, but it’s not looking good. Oh, and if anybody wants to be an accomplished writer, producer, screenwriter, director, or head of a film studio one day: Do not repeat this embarrassing mistake.

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