What’s happening with the movie right now Megalopolisis quite astounding. Since a divisive premiere at Cannes, everything seems to be going from bad to worse for this ambitious $120 million self-financed blockbuster by Francis Ford Coppola. The latest twist: Lionsgate studio fired a marketing consultant following the use of fake reviews generated by artificial intelligence in a trailer. Here are five controversies.
Without a distributor for a long time
Even before its highly anticipated Cannes premiere in spring 2024, Megalopolis is the subject of pessimistic rumors. Indeed, despite the eminently famous name of Francis Ford Coppola and a selection in official competition at the most prestigious film festival in the world, the distribution rights of the film have not yet been acquired by any Hollywood studio. This does not bode well.
A month after Cannes, the Canadian-American studio Lionsgate became the North American distributor of the film.
A very divided critical reception
Still in Cannes, the critical reception following the premiere on May 16 was very divided. “Uncompromising, uniquely intellectual, resolutely romantic (upper and lower case R), largely satirical but remarkably sincere…”, according to David Fear, of Rolling Stone. A “pretentious and sinister curiosity” [qui] will test patience…”, according to the BBC’s Nicholas Barber. “To call this garish, bloated monstrosity of ideas a mere ‘fable’ is to grossly underestimate the project’s vast prospects for art, life and legacy,” qualifies Peter Debruge, if you will, in Variety.
Note that in some film circles, negative criticism Megalopolis seems to come back to attacking Francis Ford Coppola and his cinematic legacy. However, as Jérôme Vermelin of the TF1 channel reminds us, speaking of the “film too many” of a great: “Burying the new work of a genius does not provide any particular pleasure. Rather sadness.”
Unsolicited kisses
Echoes of a chaotic shoot preceded the film well before its premiere. However, it was not until July 26, in Varietythat the first allegations of unsolicited kisses by Francis Ford Coppola on scantily clad young extras were made, supported by two compromising videos.
On August 2, in the same publication, one of the extras, Lauren Pagone, came out of anonymity to reiterate that the filmmaker had engaged in problematic behavior. “I was shocked. I didn’t expect him to kiss me and hug me like that. I was taken aback. And I can tell you that he came back several times.”
The statements come in response to those of fellow featured author Rayna Menz, who told the competing publication: Deadline that Coppola “did not[avait] “did nothing to make me or anyone else on set feel uncomfortable.”
Fake quotes
On August 21, Lionsgate released a second trailer for Megalopolis. In an irreverent promotional formula previously used for films ranging from Pink Flamigosby John Waters, at Mother!by Darren Aronofsky, said trailer begins with negative critiques of Coppola’s past masterpieces, including The Godfather And Apocalypse Now.
The concept, very valid, consists in the essence of demonstrating that critics do not understand genius and that history ends up proving them wrong. It is fair game, the trouble being that the authenticity of these critiques is quickly called into question. Very quickly, it is established that the journalists mentioned did not write the comments attributed to them. After just a few hours, Lionsgate withdraws the trailer with an apology, acknowledging having “screwed up”.
A possible use of AI?
On August 23, Lionsgate announced that it had ended its relationship with Eddie Egan, the marketing consultant responsible for the trailer containing the fake reviews. Variety explains that it has been confirmed by various sources that “it was not the intention of Lionsgate or Egan to fabricate quotes, rather it was an error in the review and verification of the sentences provided by the consultant.” “The intention of the trailer was to demonstrate that Coppola’s revered work, like Megalopolishas been criticized. It appears that AI was used to generate the fake critic quotes.”
The movie Megalopolis is set to hit theaters on September 27. It remains to be seen whether all this controversy will harm or — on the contrary — help the film. After all, it’s not for nothing that expressions like “speak well of it, speak badly of it, but speak of it” or “there is no such thing as bad publicity” were invented.