The Trailer For Francis Ford Coppola's New Movie Has Been 'Pulled' For This 1 Bizarre Reason

"We screwed up. We are sorry."
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Francis Ford Coppola at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year
via Associated Press

The trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming movie has been withdrawn from circulation after several of the critics’ quotes used to describe the film were found to be inaccurate.

Earlier this week, production company Lionsgate released a teaser for the five-time Oscar winner’s latest work Megalopolis, which features the likes of Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne and Nathalie Emmanuel.

The now-pulled trailer opened with supposed disparaging quotes from Coppola’s most iconic offerings including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, along with the message: “True genius is often misunderstood.”

 

However, it was quickly pointed out that a number of these quotes didn’t actually appear to be accurate.

Following this Lionsgate released a statement confirming they were “immediately recalling” the trailer.

“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,” the company said, adding: “We screwed up. We are sorry.”

Megalopolis has already been the subject of controversy, after The Guardian published a piece last month raising questions about the director’s behaviour on set, in which it was alleged he’d “tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras” during a scene set at a nightclub.

He told the New York Times: “My mother told me that if you make an advance toward a woman, it means you disrespect her, and the girls I had crushes on, I certainly didn’t disrespect them.”

He added: “I’m not touchy-feely. I’m too shy.” 

Last month, Variety published footage of the filmmaker making advances towards female extras.

Megalopolis – which also stars Shia LaBeouf and Jon Voigt – has apparently been 40 years in the making, with the 85-year-old filmmaking self-financing the movie’s $100 million (around £76 million) budget himself.