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    Lionsgate Recalls and Apologizes For “Megalopolis” Trailer With Fabricated Critics’ Quotes

    By SHOOTNo Comments459 Views
    This image provided by Lionsgate shows a scene from the film, "Megalopolis." (Lionsgate via AP)

    By Lindsey Bahr, Film Writer

    LOS ANGELES (AP) --

    Lionsgate recalled its new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s ” Megalopolis ” Wednesday amid revelations that critics’ quotes were fabricated.

    “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement to The Associated Press. “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 earlier Wednesday, included quotes from critics like Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert of other Coppola films that did not actually appear in their reviews. The intent, it seems, was to highlight the critical divisiveness of now-classics like “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” leaning into some of the more negative reactions to “Megalopolis,” the self-financed $120 million epic opening in September.

    The trailer attributed a quote to Kael that “The Godfather” was “diminished by its artsiness.” But Kael loved “The Godfather,” and this phrase was not used in her March 1972 review of the film for The New Yorker. Ebert also did not write that Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” was “a triumph of style over substance.” Quotes from Rex Reed and Vincent Canby, about “Apocalypse Now,” did not appear in their reviews either.

    “Megalopolis” has been decades in the making, and it received many mixed reviews upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It has also come under scrutiny of late for alleged misconduct on set, after videos leaked of Coppola hugging and kissing extras during a club scene. Representatives have not responded to the AP’s requests for comment about the videos.

    The film is set to have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month before hitting theaters on Sept. 27.

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    Category:News
    Tags:Francis Ford CoppolaLionsgateMegalopolis



    Dueling Documentaries Delve Into The Promise and Perils Of AI

    Thursday, March 5, 2026

    Artificial intelligence's dystopian specter has spawned a pair of documentaries dissecting a technology that's depicted in the films as a ravenous parasite devouring humanity's knowledge, creativity and empathy.

    The films, "Deepfaking Sam Altman" and "The AI Doc," examine the issue through different lenses while similarly illuminating why the technology evokes both existential fears and utopian visions about how it might change the world.

    Both documentaries coincide with an intensifying debate about whether AI will become a catalyst that helps enlighten and enrich people or a technological toxin that insidiously dulls human intelligence while wiping out millions of high-paying jobs that have traditionally required college educations.

    Dealing with AI dread
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    "There is a lot of anxiety around AI, and the best way to get rid of that anxiety is to talk about it and confront it head-on," Adam Bhala Lough, the director of "Deepfaking Sam Altman," told The Associated Press.

    Lough's documentary, which has already been shown in a few theaters around the United States, probes AI by relying on a virtual doppelganger of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose trailblazing role in the field has inspired comparisons to nuclear bomb inventor J. Robert Oppenheimer. It's Lough's first major project since his HBO documentary, "Telemarketers," garnered an... Read More

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