The trailer for “Megalopolis” contains fictitious quotes from famous critics and causes controversy

Lionsgate's release of the second trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's epic film Megalopolis has been criticized for misrepresenting quotes from renowned film critics. The trailer contains fabricated quotes attributed to critics of Coppola's previous works such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now.

The trailer contains misleading quotes purporting to be from Pauline Kael of the New Yorker and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice, suggesting that they were criticizing Coppola's acclaimed films. Other critics such as Roger Ebert, John Simon, Stanley Kauffman, Vincent Canby and Rex Reed are also quoted with harsh criticism, but these quotes do not appear in their actual reviews.

Vulture and Variety have confirmed that these quotes do not match existing reviews. For example, a quote attributed to Ebert about Dracula actually comes from his 1989 review of Batman. Owen Gleiberman of Variety was incorrectly quoted as describing Bram Stoker's Dracula as a “beautiful mess,” a phrase he did not use. Gleiberman criticized the trailer's fakery, stating, “Even if you're one of those people who don't like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths.”

Some critics have been negative about Coppola's work; Reed, for example, called Apocalypse Now “a gibberish of pretentious babble.” Nevertheless, the fabricated quotes undermine the trailer's argument for positioning Megalopolis as a work that will gain appreciation over time.

Megalopolis is scheduled to hit US theaters on September 27. Lionsgate has not responded to requests for comment, and the deceased critics mentioned cannot comment on the