UPDATE: 2025-08-05 18:19 EST BY RACHEL LABONTE
Lionsgate Pulls The Megalopolis Trailer
Following the publication of this story, Lionsgate pulled theMegalopolistrailer from the internet. In a statement shared withScreen Rant’sRob Keyes, a Lionsgate spokesperson said:
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.
The original story continues below.
Summary
The negative review quotes in the newMegalopolistrailer are allegedly fabricated. The trailer begins with Laurence Fishburne’s narration saying,“True genius is often misunderstood,“followed by excerpts from negative reviews of previous Francis Ford Coppola films, includingThe Godfather,Apocalypse Now, andBram Stoker’s Dracula. Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, and Andrew Sarris are among the notable film critics whose names were attached to the quotes in the trailer forMegalopolis' upcoming release.
Every Francis Ford Coppola Movie, Ranked Worst To Best
Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most acclaimed American directors of all time - here’s a ranking of every movie he made from worst to best.
According toVulture,these quotes do not appear in the attributed critics' reviews ofThe Godfather,Apocalypse Now, orDracula, and were seemingly created for the trailer. Ebert never declaredDraculato be"a triumph of style over substance"and instead wrote in his review that “the movie is an exercise in feverish excess, and for that, if for little else, I enjoyed it.”Kael did not write thatThe Godfatherwas"diminished by its artsiness,“and in reality called it"a bicentennial picture that doesn’t insult the intelligence. It’s an epic vision of the corruption of America.”
On X/Twitter, drawing on speculation from criticSiddhant Adlakhathat ChatGPT had a hand in this,Screen Rant’s ownMaxance Vincentprovided an example of the AI-based word processor sharing inaccurate reviews of Coppola’s works. Check it out below:
Upon asking ChatGPT to compile negative reviews of Coppola’s movies, the engine produced an excerpt from a review ofThe Godfatherwritten by Ebert, which Vincent noted wasn’t accurate.
Megalopolis Continues To Be Rooted In Controversy
Fake Review Quotes Are Only The Tip Of The Iceberg
Using fake review quotes in a trailer is only the latest controversy forMegalopolis. Previous reports alleged that multipleextras were harassed by Coppola, who tried to kiss them to"get them in the mood"when filming the production’s nightclub scenes. This came out afterearlier reports of the film’s entire visual effects team being fired, following some of them quitting first, and it went far over budget, depicting a tumultuous production for Coppola’s longtime passion project.
No matter how it performs, there is no denying the increasingly strange and, at times, alarming path the film has taken.
Once the film was made,it had a difficult time landing a distributor, as it was not viewed as a commercially safe bet for the larger studios, but the smaller studios could not accommodate Coppola’s requirements for an extensive marketing plan or a release in IMAX theaters. Lionsgate Films ultimately became the distributor forMegalopolis.While it is not a controversy,Megalopolis' mixed reviewsfollowing its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival were highly divisive as well.
Given the decades-long journey toMegalopolisbecoming a reality, and the increasing number of controversies surrounding the film, it remains to be seen how it will perform at the box office. Some recent films that were expected to perform well, and that also boasted an acclaimed writer-director and a star-studded cast, did not meet expectations, and did not have the same degree of controversy as that which surroundsMegalopolis. No matter how it performs,there is no denying the increasingly strange and, at times, alarming path the film has taken.
Megalopolis
Cast
Megalopolis, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is a visionary 2024 film exploring the ambitious dream of reconstructing New York City into a utopia, following a devastating disaster. The narrative delves into the clash between the architect’s utopian vision and the political and personal turmoil that ensues. With a star-studded cast, the film examines themes of ambition, power, and the human spirit’s resilience against the backdrop of a futuristic metropolis.
