In a highly unusual move, Lionsgate is pulling its new trailer for Megalopolis, unveiled early this morning.
The decision comes following controversy over critic quotes featured in the trailer, which digging by Vulture and other outlets revealed to be fabricated.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” said a spokesperson for the studio. “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.”
The quotes featured in the Megalopolis trailer highlight previous ‘criticisms’ of Coppola’s now-iconic works, such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, by such famed critics as The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael and Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris. With reference to The Godfather, for instance, Kael is quoted as calling the film “diminished by its artsiness,” with Sarris referring to it as a “sloppy self-indulgent movie.”
The messaging here seemed to be that while Coppola’s Megalopolis was polarizing from the outset, dividing critics in its premiere at Cannes, the film will ultimately stand the test of time as a classic, much like so many of Coppola’s past works have. While it’s not clear how a slew of erroneous critic quotes wound up in the new trailer, other critics cited included Roger Ebert, Vincent Canby, John Simon, Stanley Kauffmann, and Rex Reed.
The trailer debacle hasn’t been the only controversy Megalopolis has weathered en route to theaters, as Variety in July published a report on supposed unprofessional behavior from Coppola, along with a video that appeared to depict the director kissing extras on set. A week later, one of the women featured in the video, Rayna Menz, came forward to dispute our sister trade’s account of events, telling Deadline, “He did nothing to make me or for that matter anyone on set feel uncomfortable. I felt disgusted, I was blindsided by it because it was a closed set. That someone had video of that is just ridiculous and super unprofessional.”
Self-financed by Coppola at a budget north of $100M, Megalopolis is described as a Roman epic set in an imagined Modern America. In the film, the City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.
Marking Coppola’s first feature outing since 2011’s Twixt, the film also stars Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter, and Dustin Hoffman. Its producers include Barry Hirsch, Fred Roos, and Michael Bederman.
Lionsgate is set to release Megalopolis in U.S. theaters on September 27.