Associated Incidents
Lionsgate has parted ways with Eddie Egan, the marketing consultant who came up with the "Megalopolis" trailer that included fake quotes from famous film critics.
The studio pulled the trailer on Wednesday, after it was pointed out that the quotes trashing Francis Ford Coppola's previous work did not actually appear in the critics' reviews, and were in fact made up.
Sources tell Variety it was not Lionsgate or Egan's intention to fabricate quotes, but was an error in properly vetting and fact-checking the phrases provided by the consultant. The intention of the trailer was to demonstrate that Coppola's revered work, much like "Megalopolis," has been met with criticism. It appears that AI was used to generate the false quotes from the critics.
For instance, the trailer claimed that Pauline Kael wrote in the New Yorker that "The Godfather" was "diminished by its artsiness." Kael in fact loved the movie.
When Variety prompted AI service ChatGPT to provide negative criticism about Coppola's work from well-known reviewers, the responses provided were strikingly similar to the quotes included in the trailer.
Egan has worked closely with Adam Fogelson, the chair of Lionsgate's film group, for more than 20 years. The two worked together at Universal and later at STX. Fogelson was chairman of Universal Pictures until 2013 and then chairman of the STX film group. Fogelson was hired as vice chair of the Lionsgate film group two years ago, and named chairman in January.
Egan has been an independent consultant since leaving STX in 2019.
"Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for 'Megalopolis,'" the company said Wednesday. "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."
A spokesperson for Lionsgate declined to comment on this report. Egan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.