Fortnite developer Epic Games is currently in a legal battle with Apple, and one of their opening salvos against the company was releasing the short film Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite. The film, below, was a parody of Apple’s 1984 commercial for the Macintosh, which evoked George Orwell’s famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The commercial, which introduced the Apple Macintosh ahead of its release, aired at third quarter time during Super Bowl XVIII in 1984. It is one of the most famous commercials ever, and it was directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, The Martian). Now, the director has weighed in on Epic’s version of his commercial–and while he appreciates the homage, he finds the message wanting.
Speaking to IGN, Scott said that he is aware of the trailer, and that he wrote to Epic about it. “On the one hand I can be fully complimented by the fact they copied [my commercial] shot for shot,” he told IGN. “But pity the message is so ordinary when they could have been talking about democracy or more powerful things.”
