The trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” was pulled by Lionsgate because the clip contained fabricated quotes from real film critics about the filmmaker’s previous works.
The studio responsible for distributing the film in the United States apologized to critics and Mr. Coppola “for this inexcusable error in our review process.”
“We messed up,” Lionsgate said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Megalopolis,” which was financed by Mr. Coppola himself, received mixed reviews at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The trailer released now was possibly a nod to that lukewarm reception, and attempted to show that critics aren’t always the best judges by going back in time and showing negative reviews for previous Coppola films. “Genius is often misunderstood,” Megalopolis co-star Laurence Fishburne says in a voiceover.
But these negative reviews were made up.
The ad included a quote from critic Pauline Kael, who wrote that The Godfather was “detracted from its artistry,” although her actual review was extremely positive.
Even critic Rex Reed’s obvious dig at Apocalypse Now – he said it was “an epic piece of trash” – was completely fabricated.
And the late critic Roger Ebert’s alleged insult to Bram Stoker’s Dracula – “a triumph of style over substance” – seems to have come from his review of another film by another director, Tim Burton’s Batman.
How the quotes came about is unclear.
The trailer was viewed more than 1.3 million times on the day it was released online.
The epic fantasy, starring Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza and Nathalie Emmanuel, reportedly cost Mr Coppola $120 million (£91.6 million).
In his review Nicholas Barber of the BBC called it a “pretentious, meaningful curiosity”similar to when someone remembers a “crazy dream”.
The film is scheduled to hit US theaters on September 27.
In May, the production faced renewed controversy after Variety obtained footage of Coppola during a nightclub scene on the Megalopolis set last year in which he appeared to attempt to kiss female extras. Sources told the Guardian that the famed director behaved inappropriately toward women in the film.
Coppola denied the allegations, telling the New York Times in June: “I’m not sentimental. I’m too shy.”
