Lionsgate Pulls Megalopolis Trailer for AI-Generated Fake Critic Quotes
A trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's film Megalopolis featured negative review quotes that were generated by artificial intelligence and attributed to real critics without their consent. Lionsgate pulled the trailer, apologized, and fired the marketing consultant responsible for the error.
What happened
Lionsgate released a trailer for Megalopolis featuring review quotes attributed to film critics including Pauline Kael, with quotes describing Francis Ford Coppola's past films The Godfather as 'sloppy, self-indulgent' and Apocalypse Now as 'an epic piece of trash.'
Investigation revealed the quotes were generated using ChatGPT and did not appear in the actual reviews cited, which often praised the films instead.
Reported impact
Lionsgate pulled the trailer and issued a public apology, stating 'We screwed up. We are sorry' and acknowledging 'an inexcusable error in our vetting process.'
Index analysis
The marketing consultant Eddie Egan, who had worked with Lionsgate leadership for over 20 years, was removed from the movie's marketing team following the discovery that ChatGPT was used to generate the critical quotes without fact-checking.
Governance controls
Lionsgate's vetting and fact-checking process failed to detect that the review quotes were fabricated rather than sourced from actual published criticism.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.