Megalopolis’ fake critic quotes are nothing new – Columbia Pictures invented a whole movie reviewer in the early 2000s.

Here’s an odd story from the turn of the century, when the Sony-owned Columbia Pictures decided it needed a bit more control over what critics were saying. More to the point, more control over what poster quotes the studio gleaned from said critics.

Currently, there’s an odd story about seemingly-invented quotes for a selection of Francis Ford Coppola films, attributed to some well-known film critics, in the now-deleted trailer for his upcoming opus, Megalopolis. That’s a film whose name doesn’t get easier to type over time, incidentally.

Yet back in the early 2000s, Columbia Pictures didn’t just make up poster quotes, it made up an entire film critic. A man by the name of David Manning, who seemed to be rather keen, wouldn’t you know,...