Megalopolis’ fake critic quotes are nothing new – Columbia Pictures invented an entire film critic system in the early 2000s.
Here’s a curious story from the turn of the century, when Sony-owned Columbia Pictures decided it needed a little more control over critics’ comments. More specifically, more control over the poster quotes the studio received from said critics.
There is currently a strange story circulating about seemingly fabricated quotes from a selection of Francis Ford Coppola’s films, attributed to some well-known film critics, in the now-deleted trailer for his upcoming work, Big city. By the way, this is a film whose name doesn’t get any easier to type as time goes by.
But in the early 2000s, Columbia Pictures not only invented quotes for movie posters, but an entire film critic. A man named David Manning, who, who would have thought, seemed quite keen on a number of Columbia Pictures films.
As such, Hollow Man was, according to the mysterious Manning, “a damn scary ride.” The Abandonedwas, meanwhile, “a sexy, scary rollercoaster ride.” Manning praised The Patriot also, and, uh, the Rob Schneider comedy vehicle The animalHe also declared the late Heath Ledger the “hottest new star of this year” for A knight’s story.
Read more: Quentin Tarantino’s The Movie Critic and its connections to the work of Paul Schrader
His reviews were attributed to the Ridgefield Press, which was then a small weekly newspaper published in the Connecticut area of the United States. The problem was, however, that the Ridgefield Press had never heard of David Manning, let alone published any of his works. The newspaper was completely unaware of what was going on.
It took a while for the truth to emerge, but David Manning was a fabrication of Columbia Pictures’ marketing department, and the studio was eventually forced to admit it. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia’s parent company, admitted to Newsweek magazine back in 2001 that Manning was not real. A spokesperson admitted, “It was an incredibly stupid decision and we are appalled.”
But the story didn’t end there. Columbia removed Manning’s quotes from its advertising and promptly withdrew all related promotional materials. However, Columbia was also sued by two California moviegoers. In 2005, they filed suit against the studio, accusing it of “intentional and systematic consumer deception.” Sony did not admit liability, but paid $1.5 million and offered a five-dollar refund to anyone who had purchased tickets to the films in question.
There are no figures on how many people accepted the offer, but it is hard to imagine that those who held out until the end The animal was perhaps not tempted …
