The trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis was pulled by Lionsgate because the clip included fabricated quotes from actual film critics about the filmmaker’s previous works.
The studio, which is handling the film’s US distribution, apologized to critics and Mr Coppola for “this inexcusable error in our screening process”.
“We are devastated,” Lionsgate said in a statement on Wednesday.
Megalopolis, which Mr Coppola financed, received mixed reviews at this year’s Cannes film festival.
The now-released trailer may have been a play on that lukewarm reception, trying to show that critics aren’t always the best judges by going back to show negative reviews of Coppola’s past films. “Genius is often misunderstood,” says Megalopolis star Laurence Fishburne in a voice-over.
But those negative reviews have been made.
The spot included a quote from critic Pauline Kael writing that The Godfather was “reduced by its art”, when her original review was decidedly positive.
Similarly, critic Rex Reed apparently digs Apocalypse Now – “a famous piece of trash” – being made.
And the late critic Roger Ebert’s alleged insult to the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula – “A triumph of style over substance” – seems to be taken from his review of a different film by a different director, Tim Burton’s Batman.
It is unclear how the quotes were created.
The trailer was viewed more than 1.3 million times the day it was posted online.
The epic fantasy, which stars Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza and Nathalie Emmanuel, cost Mr Coppola an estimated $120m (£91.6m).
In his review, The BBC’s Nicholas Barber called it “a pretentious, fantastical curiosity”like someone who remembers a “crazy dream”.
The film is expected to hit US theaters on September 27.
The show was hit by another controversy in May after Variety obtained photos of Mr. Coppola during a Megalopolis nightclub event last year, apparently trying to kiss more women. Sources told the Guardian that the legendary director misbehaved with women in the film.
Mr Coppola denied the allegations, telling the New York Times in June: “I’m not the person involved. I am very ashamed.”
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