Fortnite on iPhone XRSource: iMore

What you need to know

  • Epic Games parodied the famous "1984" Apple ad in its battle over Fortnite on App Store.
  • Ridley Scott, director of the original ad, has had his say on the parody.

  • He thinks that some aspects were "terrific" but others, not so much.

    "I think the animation was terrific, the idea was terrific, the message was 'ehh'."

By this point everyone knows that Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store following a whole round of shenanigans, but things really kicked up a gear when Epic released its "1984" ad parody. Taking Apple's famous ad and turning it against it, Epic's #FreeFortnite campaign was born. But what did Ridley Scott, director of the original ad, think about it?

The folks at IGN asked him, and it turns out that he has seen Epic's parody. And yes, he thinks the idea was a good one. But he has reservations.

"I sure have and I wrote to them because on the one hand I can be fully complimented by the fact they copied [my commercial] shot for shot," Scott says. "But pity the message is so ordinary when they could have been talking about democracy or more powerful things… And they didn't use it."

Scott added, "I think the animation was terrific, the idea was terrific, the message was 'ehh'."

So there we have it. Scott has no problem with Epic's parody and, really, why would he? But he does have a point – it would have been nice if all this energy went into dealing with the bigger problems we're dealing with right now.

Maybe Epic just couldn't think of a catchy hashtag for those things.