One mistake can mean doom for a movie, even one as hotly anticipated as ARRIVAL. Except, in this case, the mistake is a bit of doozy, and it has created a much bigger controversy than anyone could’ve anticipated.
Variety got wind of the blunder, which involves one of the posters for upcoming sci-fi flick. The mistake shows an alien spacecraft hovering over the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. However, the big tower in the foreground of the poster is of the Oriental Pearl Tower which is located in Shanghai.
Take a look below:
Now, not only is this a blunder because the tower is in a completely different location from Hong Kong, but because Shanghai is located in China, which Hong Kong is not a part of. The mistake has sparked an outrage among many in Hong Kong, inspiring the hashtag #hongkongisnotchina. Even political candidates in Hong Kong, like the dubbed “‘Godfather of localism”, Horace Chin Wan-kan made a comment saying:
“The movie adaptation of the sci-fi novel ‘Arrival’, which obtained the Nebula Award, [has] decent director Denis Villeneuve and actors Amy Adams [and] Jeremy Renner. However, everything is ruined by this improper poster.”
I can see why so many in Hong Kong would be so upset. Hong Kong has been striving for years to seek independence from China, so this was probably a punch to the gut. No doubt the poster will be fixed by the studio, or just destroyed in general with a new one coming out soon. But the damage has been done, with many on Twitter calling for the firing of whoever was in charge of marketing, and some are even boycotting the film. The studio has made no comment yet on the matter, but I don’t think a “sorry” is gonna really cut it.
ARRIVAL is set for November 11 starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker.