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Lionsgate Pulls 'Megalopolis' Trailer Offline Due To Made-Up Critic Quotes (variety.com) 33
Lionsgate is recalling its latest trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's epic "Megalopolis," which featured a littany of fabricated quotes from famous film critics. From a report: "Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for 'Megalopolis,'" a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety. "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 on Wednesday morning, aimed to position Coppola's latest film as a work of art that would withstand the test of time, much like his previous masterpieces "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now." The video included several quotes from critics panning Coppola's previous work -- but none of the phrases, attributed to the likes of Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael, could be found in any of their reviews.
The trailer, released on Wednesday morning, aimed to position Coppola's latest film as a work of art that would withstand the test of time, much like his previous masterpieces "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now." The video included several quotes from critics panning Coppola's previous work -- but none of the phrases, attributed to the likes of Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael, could be found in any of their reviews.
Did Dave Get Fired? (Score:4, Insightful)
First, good apology.
Second, did a video editor put in placeholder quotes and then got fired because his utility to the Collective was no longer necessary?
It's very odd to think that a team let that be released.
Re: Did Dave Get Fired? (Score:2)
At some level, this may have been treated as satire. Bad reviews aren't how you typically sell a movie, so maybe it was intended as satire, and made it out to marketing before what happened got caught.
Re: (Score:3)
At some level, this may have been treated as satire. Bad reviews aren't how you typically sell a movie, so maybe it was intended as satire, and made it out to marketing before what happened got caught.
Having watched the trailer, I think it was intentional and intended as satire but also priming people to ignore negative reviews of the movie. It's already been shown in Cannes to "mixed" reviews and I would gamble on the non-Cannes reviewers not treating it any kinder.
Re: (Score:2)
That was my take on the trailer as well. It seemed to be saying "Look, all these awesome movies that you like had really bad reviews when they came out, but they turned out to be awesome. So, when this movie gets really bad reviews, it will turn out to be awesome too! So go see it anyway."
I can understand the incentive for a film studio to encourage people to ignore bad reviews. They DO spend quite a lot of money making these movies, and their motivation is to make a profit, so it is natural that they w
AI? [Re:Did Dave Get Fired?] (Score:2)
AI?
Sounds like somebody thought it would be cool to have an AI write the trailer script.
Re: (Score:2)
Ai Caramba.
Re: (Score:2)
If it was placeholder text that they forgot to change before release, that's what Lorem Ipsum [wikipedia.org] is for.
If it was a joke about "these other movies of his got bad reviews too", then at least make the effort to use actual correct quotes.
If it was completely played for laughs, then use lightly-faked names, like Eger Rodbert.
And if it was an attempt at making a meme, then fucking git gud first. Ten years of 4chan and you might have a chance.
Also, Monty Python has shown that you can get away with asterisking (t
AI written? (Score:5, Insightful)
It’s not clear where most of the quotes featured in the trailer came from — with the exception of Roger Ebert’s comment, “a triumph of style over substance,” which was actually pulled from his 1989 review of “Batman,” and not about “Dracula,” as indicated in the trailer.
Sounds just like the sort of result you'd get if you asked AI to write the trailer text (and didn't bother to check it).
Re:AI written? (Score:5, Funny)
But what is a vampire if not a batman?
Re: (Score:2)
What is a bat? A miserable little pile of secrets!
A pile of bats with secrets sounds miserable. No wonder they hide in caves.
Re: (Score:2)
Um. AI should learn by now that Roger Ebert is DEAD and can't review film from the grave just because his web domain is hosted by lifeless automated technology.
It was probably written with "AI" (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
ChatGPT whipping boy (Score:3)
You could plausibly get away with any made up shit now that we have ChatGPT. "Oh, I had *no idea* those facts and figures were made up! Must have been ChatGPT! My bad, I'll check closer next time!"
So is it now a Doomed Megalopolis? (Score:2)
Because I would definitely buy tickets to watch that on a big screen [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
That one is a weird one. Bits and pieces of genius in it. Some really gnarly parts too.
I don't know if a modern production could really do these old anime and movies justice. It would be like trying to bring back 70's blacksploitation films without making it a spoof or taking away everything that made the films what they were. We're far too quick to polish something for a broad audience. Instead of the old days when someone with vision raised some money and made whatever the hell they wanted to make.
Maybe i
Re: (Score:2)
That one is a weird one. Bits and pieces of genius in it. Some really gnarly parts too.
I don't know if a modern production could really do these old anime and movies justice. It would be like trying to bring back 70's blacksploitation films without making it a spoof or taking away everything that made the films what they were. We're far too quick to polish something for a broad audience. Instead of the old days when someone with vision raised some money and made whatever the hell they wanted to make.
Maybe it could be taken seriously if a studio did a triple feature of old anime remakes. As a way to market it and keep the production costs lower. Perhaps any three of: Doomed Megalopolis, Wicked City, Cyber City Oedo 808, Midnight Eye: Gokuu, Angel Cop, Genocyber, and/or Perfect Blue. Although the last one is well above of the mid-tier and can stand on its own.
I'm on the fence if a remake of any of these should take all the sex out or not though. Some of it is pretty uncomfortable to watch. But if they were to be made true to their original vision then I guess it would stay. It's starting to feel like 30+ year old anime is a relic of its time, and it's not a time we can go back to without complications.
Man, Perfect Blue and Genocyber! Even later works like Paprika still seem strongly inventive compared to modern cinema.
But we've seen how American media/entertainment corporations have locked into a clearly deliberate strategy of Nostalgia Monetization - as soon as any generation hits 45, you can get people to pay you AGAIN for recycling the same properties they watched/listened/read/played 30-40 years earlier. Surely that will also occur in Japan? Nostalgia is a universal, culture-independent feature of hu
Litany - great word (Score:2)
It turns out that litany [wikipedia.org] is seeing something of a boom [google.com] in use, at least in books. "Littany", a typo by Variety faithfully reproduced by Slashdot, not so much [google.com].
refreshing (Score:2)
That was a refreshing response:
"Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for 'Megalopolis, 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."
Honestly, that makes me actually inclined to give Lionsgate my business by seeing one of their films.
Simple, clear honesty and an apology for mistake made is so fucking rare these days, we NEED to endorse that sort of clarity.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm holding out for a "Those responsible have been sacked."
Family Guy (Score:2)
megalomaniac (Score:1)
Huh? (Score:2)
Why would you include quotes panning earlier work? Wouldn't you include quotes praising previous work instead?
Re: (Score:2)
Why would you include quotes panning earlier work? Wouldn't you include quotes praising previous work instead?
The purpose is to say critics panned Cuppola movies that were later considered classics, and hence reviews panning this move should be ignored or laughed at.
GREAT publicity stunt (Score:2)
Not sure how much this 'mistake' has been worth in getting people's attention on the film, but it will have been worth millions.
A charitable donation somewhere north of $10m would be a good start to encourage me to believe it wasn't deliberate...
Chat GPT (Score:2)
I bet someone asked Chat GPT to compile the quotes.
Does this mean (Score:2)
that some critic reviews are *not* made up?