The trailer for Francis Coppola’s Metropolis has been withdrawn by Lionsgate after the clip contained fabricated references to the filmmaker’s previous work by real critics.
The studio responsible for distributing the film in the United States apologized to the critics and Mr. Coppola “for this inexcusable error in our review process.”
“We screwed up,” Lionsgate said in a statement Wednesday.
“Megacity,” which Mr. Coppola self-financed, received mixed reviews at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The trailer released now may be a continuation of this lukewarm response, trying to show that critics aren’t always the best judges by going back in time to show negative reviews of past Coppola films. “Genius is often misunderstood,” “Metropolis” co-star Laurence Fishburne says in voiceover.
But those negative comments are manufactured.
The ad quoted critic Pauline Kael, who said that “The Godfather” was “undercut by its artistry” when she wrote about it, yet her actual review was overwhelmingly positive.
Likewise, critic Rex Reed’s apparent scorn for Apocalypse Now—”an epic piece of trash”—was made up.
The late critic Roger Ebert’s alleged insult about Bram Stoker’s Dracula films – “style triumphs over substance” – appears to be based on what he said about another director, Tim A review of another of Burton’s Batman films.
It is unclear how these offers were created.
The trailer was viewed more than 1.3 million times on the day it was released online.
The epic fantasy, starring Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza and Natalie Emmanuel, reportedly cost Mr. Coppola $120 million ( £91.6 million).
In his comments, The BBC’s Nicholas Barber called it a “pretentious, ominous antique”like someone recalling a “crazy dream.”
The film will be released in the United States on September 27.
The production sparked another controversy last May after Variety obtained footage of Mr. Coppola trying to kiss a female extra during a nightclub scene on the Megacity set. Sources told The Guardian that the famed director behaved inappropriately towards women in his films.
Mr. Coppola has denied the accusations, telling The New York Times in June: “I’m not sensitive. I’m too shy.
