‘Megalopolis’ Cuts Ties With Marketing Consultant Behind Trailer Debacle; Fabricated Critic Quotes Were Generated By AI

Matt Grobar
·3 min read

Following its recent debacle involving fabricated trailer quotes, Lionsgate’s Francis Ford Coppola epic Megalopolis has cut ties with marketing consultant Eddie Egan, sources have confirmed to Deadline.

Lionsgate declined comment. But we hear that the quotes featured in yesterday’s trailer, revealed by Vulture to be fake, were found to have been generated by AI following an investigation. The materials fell under the purview of Egan, who prior to his work as an independent consultant, held executive posts at STXfilm and assorted major studios.

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In the immediate aftermath of the trailer snafu, some questioned whether the fake quotes were part of a a marketing ploy purposefully designed to keep the film in the headlines. But we’re told this couldn’t be further from the truth. Rather, the situation should be looked at as a cautionary tale, as neither Egan nor Lionsgate was out to intentionally fabricate quotes. Mistakes were simply made in the vetting of marketing materials.

If Egan’s involvement with Lionsgate’s Megalopolis campaign is over, whether he’ll be back in business with the studio again in the future is not yet clear.

It was early Wednesday morning that Lionsgate debuted its second trailer for Megalopolis, featuring a slew of past “criticisms” of Coppola’s now-iconic works by such famed critics as The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael and Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris. In reference to The Godfather, for example, Kael was quoted as calling the film “diminished by its artsiness,” with Sarris referring to it as a “sloppy self-indulgent movie.”

The intention was to argue that while Megalopolis was polarizing from the time of its first screening pre-Cannes — as many of the filmmaker’s works have been — the film will stand the test of time as another Coppola classic. While it’s not clear who exactly gathered the AI quotes that wound up in the trailer, other critics cited included Roger Ebert, Vincent Canby, John Simon, Stanley Kauffmann, and Rex Reed.

When word began to spread that the quotes featured in the trailer were fabricated, Lionsgate made the unorthodox move of taking the trailer down from the web and issuing an apology. “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” said a spokesperson for the studio. “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 debacle hasn’t been the only controversy Megalopolis has weathered en route to theaters, as Variety last month published a report on supposed unprofessional behavior from Coppola, along with a video that appeared to depict the director kissing extras on set. A week later, one of the women featured in the video, Rayna Menz, came forward to dispute our sister trade’s account of events.

Self-financed by Coppola at a budget north of $100M, Megalopolis is a Roman epic set in an imagined Modern America, which stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel and many more. Marking Coppola’s first feature since 2011’s Twixt, the film hits U.S. theaters on September 27.

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