'We screwed up': Lionsgate drops new 'Megalopolis' trailer after the one with fake quotes
“Megalopolis” has received a do-over trailer after a previous iteration was recalled for a mega faux pas.
Lionsgate last month released the first official trailer for the Francis Ford Coppola-directed sci-fi epic. But within hours of the drop, the production company pulled the video after it was found to include fake quotes from real film critics. The company has since issued an apology for the misstep.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer,” its same-day statement said. “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.”
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The production company also cut ties with Eddie Egan, the marketing consultant behind the recalled trailer, Variety reported. Sources told the outlet that the quotes were not intentionally fabricated and that there had been an error in the vetting and fact-checking process.
It remains unclear how the fake quotes were created. Some on social media, speculating that AI was involved, started feeding prompts to ChatGPT looking for similar results, the New York Times reported.
Lionsgate has not commented on whether ChatGPT or other AI tools were used for the trailer.
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The new trailer, released Thursday, contains much of the video from the original one. In addition, Laurence Fishburne, who stars in the film, lauds its director: “One filmmaker has always been ahead of his time. Now, from visionary writer and director Francis Ford Coppola comes an event nothing can prepare you for.”
In addition to Fishburne, the film stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Jason Schwartzman and Grace VanderWaal.
“Megalopolis,” dubbed a “Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America,” premiered at Cannes in May and comes to theaters Sept. 27.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
