Lionsgate recalls trailer for ‘Megalopolis’ with fabricated critics’ quotes

The trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” film was recalled Wednesday because critic quotes used in it were fabricated.

Lionsgate, the studio handling the American distribution for the dystopian epic, told NBC News it pulled the trailer, saying, “We screwed up.”

The trailer included critics’ quotes of other Coppola films that did not actually appear in their “Megalopolis” reviews.

“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a spokesperson for the studio told NBC News Thursday. “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 trailer, released Wednesday, had included quotes from prominent film critics that sought to spotlight the divisiveness of past Coppola classics. It seemed to be in an effort to change the tune of the film’s reception after it divided audiences at Cannes earlier this year, according to a Variety report from the festival.

However, those critic lines were either misquoted or untrue.

Owen Gleiberman was incorrectly quoted as calling Coppola’s 1992 film “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” “a beautiful mess” when he reviewed the movie for Entertainment Weekly, Variety reported.

Roger Ebert was quoted as saying “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” was a “triumph of style over substance” — when he had actually said that in his 1989 review of “Batman” not “Dracula,” Variety reported.

Pauline Kael was quoted as saying “The Godfather” was “diminished by its artsiness,” however, that phrase was not included in her March 1972 review of the film for The New Yorker, The Associated Press reported. 

Lionsgate would not comment on how the misquotes ended up in the trailer.

“Megalopolis” will open in U.S. theaters on Sept. 27.