The Megalopolis trailer scandal has escalated, as the marketing consultant responsible for the likely AI generated fake quotes in the controversial trailer has been fired.
A Variety report claims that the quotes in the controversial trailer were the work of marketing consultant Eddie Egan, with sources saying that it was not Lionsgate’s intention to fabricate the quotes, but that the whole debacle resulted from “an error in properly vetting and fact-checking.”
Egan has worked with Adam Fogelson, the chair of Lionsgate’s film group, for more than 20 years.
It was also demonstrated that the quotes were more than fake – they were generated by artificial intelligence. The report mentions that the AI platform ChatGPT was used to provide negative criticism about director Francis Ford Coppola’s past work, in an initially savvy-seeming bid to belittle the negative criticism surrounding Megalopolis after its Cannes premiere, painting the director as a misunderstood genius.
Last week, a new trailer for Coppola’s forthcoming film Megalopolis was released, and featured several film review quotes from famous critics, including Pauline Kael, who had apparently trashed Coppola’s previous films like The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The marketing technique was revealed to be a truly stupid stunt, as the quotes were revealed to have been fabricated.
Check it out:
After being called out, Lionsgate pulled the trailer and issued an apology.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement. “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.”
Megalopolis hits theatres on 27 September.
In our Cannes review of the film, we called it a “disastrous folly” and an “unwieldy mess” that is comfortably one of the most ambitious yet shallow and awful films you’ll see all year. You can read our full review here.
You can bet it won’t be joining any of our favourite films of 2024 so farin making our Top Films of 2024 list come December.
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