Lionsgate's Francis Ford Coppola epic Megalopolis has cut ties with marketing consultant Eddie Egan following the recent debacle over fake trailer quotes, sources confirm to Deadline.
Lionsgate declined to comment, but said an investigation found that the dialogue featured in yesterday's trailer, which was exposed as fake by Vulture, was generated by AI.The material came under the purview of Egan, who held executive roles at STXfilm and several major studios before working as an independent consultant.
In the aftermath of the trailer furore, some questioned whether the fake quote was part of a deliberate marketing strategy designed to keep people talking about the film. However, this is reportedly far from the truth. Instead, the situation should be seen as a cautionary tale, and that neither Egan nor Lionsgate were intentionally trying to fabricate the quote; it was simply a mistake in reviewing marketing materials.
Even though Egan's involvement with Lionsgate's Megalopolis campaign has come to an end, it's still not clear whether he'll return to work for the studio in the future.
Lionsgate debuted Megalopolis' second trailer early Wednesday morning, which features a number of past “critics” of Coppola's now-iconic works, including those from The New Yorker's Pauline Kael and The Village Voice's Andrew Sarris, who reportedly called The Godfather “artless” and “a sloppy, self-indulgent movie.”
The idea is that, although Megalopolis received mixed reviews when it first screened before the Cannes Film Festival (as has much of Coppola's work), the film will stand the test of time as another of Coppola's masterpieces. It's unclear who compiled the AI quotes used in the trailer, but critics cited include Roger Ebert, Vincent Canby, John Simon, Stanley Kaufman, and Rex Reed.
After rumors began to spread that dialogue in the trailer was fabricated, Lionsgate took the unusual step of removing the trailer from the web and issuing an apology. “Lionsgate is immediately retracting the trailer for Megalopolis,” a studio spokesperson said. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved, Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this unforgivable error in our review process. We failed. We are sorry.”
The trailer debacle isn't the only controversy Megalopolis has experienced leading up to its theatrical release. Variety magazine ran a story last month about Coppola's unprofessional behavior, along with a video that appeared to show the director kissing an extra on set. A week later, one of the women featured in the video, Raina Menz, came forward to dispute Our Sister Industries' version of events.
Coppola's self-financed, $100 million-plus budgeted “Megalopolis” is a Roman epic set in a fictional modern-day America and stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito and Nathalie Emmanuel. The film, Coppola's first feature film since 2011's “Twisty,” hits U.S. theaters on September 27.
