Aug 26, 2024 11:46:00

It was revealed that all comments made by film critics in the trailer for the movie 'Megalopolis' were fabricated by AI, and the trailer was deleted and the person in charge was fired

It was revealed that the trailer for

Francis Ford Coppola 's latest film, Megalopolis , used 'fake review comments' generated by AI, and Eddie Egan, who was in charge of producing the trailer, was removed from the marketing team.

'Megalopolis' Marketing Consultant's Lionsgate Ties Cut Over Trailer Debacle
https://deadline.com/2024/08/megalopolis-marketing-consultant-lionsgate-ties-cut-trailer-debacle-1236049223/

AI was responsible for the fake quotes in the Megalopolis trailer - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/25/24228003/megalopolis-trailer-fake-quotes-ai-generated-eddie-egan-dropped-lionsgate

Megalopolis, a sci-fi film directed by Coppola, is produced by American Zoetrope and distributed by Lionsgate .

The trailer for 'Megalopolis,' released on August 22, 2024, is a compilation of film critics' review comments on the works that Director Coppola has produced so far, including Pauline Kael of The New Yorker and Andrew Sarris of The Village Voice. Many 'criticisms' of Director Coppola himself and his works were featured.

Megalopolis - Official Trailer (2024) Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza - YouTube


For example, Kael criticized Coppola's film 'The Godfather' as 'devalued by its artistic merit,' and Sarris is said to have criticized it as 'a sloppy, self-indulgent film.' In response to the mixed reviews of Megalopolis when it was first screened before the Cannes Film Festival, it seems that Coppola's past masterpieces were also mixed reviews.

However,

Vulture quickly pointed out that the reviews from film critics included in the trailer were fake and non-existent: in the reviews cited, both Kael and Sallis praised The Godfather and did not offer the criticisms featured in the trailer.

Lionsgate then removed the offending trailer from the internet and apologized, saying, 'Lionsgate is immediately retracting the trailer for Megalopolis. We sincerely apologize to the critics involved, Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this unforgivable error in the review process. It was our mistake. We are sorry.'

Deadline , a movie-related media outlet, conducted its own investigation and found that the fake comments were generated by AI. According to information obtained by Deadline from a source, the AI-generated comments were created by Eddie Egan, who previously held executive positions at STXfilm and major movie studios, and who currently works as an independent film consultant at the time of writing.

Initially, some speculated that the fake AI-generated comments were a deliberate marketing ploy to generate buzz around the film, but Deadline reports that Egan and Lionsgate did not intentionally fabricate the comments.

Following the incident, Egan was fired from the marketing team.