Francis Ford Coppola breaks silence on fake critic quotes in “Megalopolis” trailer: 'I'm not sure what happened'

"It was a mistake, an accident," the filmmaker added.

Francis Ford Coppola is finally responding to the Megalopolis trailer debacle, which saw the video pulled after journalists and social media users pointed out that it featured fake quotes attributed to real movie critics.

While walking the red carpet for the film’s North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Coppola took some credit for the idea to feature bad reviews of his past films in the trailer — but said he isn’t sure how it ultimately went so wrong.

“Well I know that there were bad reviews. I’m the one that who said there were bad reviews,” Coppola told Entertainment Tonight. “But I don’t know. It was a mistake, an accident, I’m not sure what happened.”

<p>Andreas Rentz/Getty </p> Francis Ford Coppola

Andreas Rentz/Getty

Francis Ford Coppola

Related: Francis Ford Coppola says Megalopolis isn't 'woke,' features actors 'who were canceled'

The now-deleted trailer opened with a voiceover from Laurence Fishburne saying, "True genius is often misunderstood," before providing snippets from "negative reviews" of Coppola’s most-revered titles, including The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. The quotes were attributed to esteemed critics such as Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, and Roger Ebert — but soon after it debuted online, some viewers cross-referenced those critics’ reviews only to discover that the pull quotes were nowhere to be found. Further investigation found that many of the reviews being cited were actually positive on Coppola’s films.

Hours later, the trailer was removed. A spokesperson for Lionsgate, the studio handling American distribution of the film that was self-financed by Coppola, apologized to the filmmaker in a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly.

"Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis. 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,” the statement read.

Lionsgate later stated that the marketing consultant hired to produce the trailer used AI to generate the false statements.

<p>American Zoetrope/Megalopolis/Mihai Malaimare</p> Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver) and Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel) in Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis.'

American Zoetrope/Megalopolis/Mihai Malaimare

Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver) and Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel) in Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis.'

Related: 'Epic' or a 'mess'? Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis divides critics after Cannes premiere

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This is not the only example of scandal surrounding the forthcoming film. In May, the Guardian reported claims of Coppola behaving inappropriately on set of the movie, alleging that he kissed and groped topless female extras to get them "in the mood" for a scene. Variety later published a video that purportedly captured Coppola in the midst of said behavior, only for one extra, Rayna Menz, to defend the director on Instagram. The extra who Coppola allegedly kissed in the video, Lauren Pagone, then reportedly told Variety, “I was in shock. I didn’t expect him to kiss and hug me like that," noting that "You can’t speak for anyone but yourself. My experience was different.”

Coppola responded to the allegations in a June profile for the New York Times, saying that he does not “disrespect” women. He added, "I'm not touchy-feely. I’m too shy."

Megalopolis, which stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, and Dustin Hoffman, is set to release in theaters on Sept. 27.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.