Fake Quotes in MEGALOPOLIS Trailer Were Created by AI, Lionsgate Drops Marketing Consultant

Last week, Lionsgate released a new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’S Megalopolis and highlighted a bunch of negative reviews of the film. It was later revealed that many of those quotes were false and the trailer was pulled.

We’ve now discovered that the fake quotes used in the trailer were generated using AI, and that Liongate has fired the marketing consultant Eddie Egan who was responsible for it all.

According to Variety, “it was not the intention of Lionsgate or Egan to invent quotes, but an error occurred in properly checking and verifying the quotes provided by the consultant.”

The quotes present in the Megalopolis The trailer included previous “criticisms” of Coppola’s now iconic works, such as The Godfather AND Apocalypse now. One says The Godfather is “dwarfed by its artistry,” and another calls it a “sloppy, self-indulgent film.”

The purpose of all this was to highlight the polarizing criticism of Coppola’s work and how a film like Megalopolis It will ultimately stand the test of time and become a classic like many other Coppola films.

Egan has worked closely with Adam Fogelson, chairman of Lionsgate’s motion picture group, for more than 20 years, but that long relationship has now come to an end.

I understand what they were trying to do, but all they needed was to do some good research to extract actual quotes from critics instead of using AI to invent them. A really weird thing to do, especially since there are a lot of actual negative reviews for many of Coppola’s films.

Lionsgate previously said in a statement: “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for ‘Megalopolis.’ We sincerely apologize to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our review process. We made a mistake. We are sorry.”

Lionsgate will release the film on September 27, 2024.