Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis trailer withdrawn over fake quotes by film critics

Lionsgate has withdrawn its trailer for the self-funded Francis Ford Coppola epic Megalopolis after it was criticised for including false and misleading quotes, with the film company admitting: "We screwed up."

- Benjamin Lee, Nadia Khomami

The trailer, released on Wednesday, starts by going back in time to show negative quotes from established critics for acclaimed films from Coppola's past such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. "Genius is often misunderstood," says the accompanying narration.

The entertainment site Vulture's Bilge Ebiri pointed out that many of the quotes were manufactured and could not be found in the original reviews. He noted that the former New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael's alleged Godfather quote - "diminished by its artsiness" - was nowhere to be found in her glowing reviews of the first two films.

While the Village Voice's Andrew Sarris was not a fan of The Godfather, the quote used in the trailer - "a sloppy, self-indulgent movie" - was also not in his review. Similarly, while the Daily News critic Rex Reed did not like Apocalypse Now, the quote being attributed - "an epic piece of trash" was also nowhere to be found.