If he doesn't exist, he should at least have given us a better quote

Joe Roth Revolution Studios

"It was an incredibly foolish decision, and we're horrified," Sony spokeswoman Susan Tick told Newsweek magazine.

Manning's quotes were also used to sell Vertical Limit, starring Chris O'Donnell, and Kevin Bacon's Hollow Man.

But despite an atmosphere of hype and stunts, this "certainly does cross the line" of acceptability, Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, said.

"We would never, never, never, ever do that," he told the magazine.

Kevin Bacon starred in thriller Hollow Man

The Ridgefield Press is a real weekly newspaper covering a small town in Connecticut.

But it does not have a reviewer called David Manning, and it was not aware that its name was being used on film adverts.

An unidentified Sony employee apparently concocted the Manning persona last July, using the name of a friend.

Ms Tick said Sony was looking into it and would "take appropriate action".

"If he doesn't exist, he should at least have given us a better quote," Joe Roth, whose Revolution Studios produced The Animal, said.

'Disappointing'

Sony also broke convention by paying cinemas to show trailers of The Animal.

"They should be paying audiences to sit through this disappointing, half-baked comedy," said one real reviewer on E! Online.

A Knight's Tale needed a little less help, but was still described as "a forgettable, somewhat corny romantic adventure" by the Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt.

It has taken almost $50m (£35m) at America's box offices, while The Animal took $20m (£14m) in its first weekend.