Presence of Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl tower in Hong Kong’s Victoria harbour in poster for new Amy Adams sci-fi movie interpreted by some as political propaganda

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A Shanghai landmark has become part of Hong Kong’s skyline – at least in a poster for an forthcoming Hollywood movie.

The misplacement, transplanting the Oriental Pearl tower from the Chinese city to Hong Kong’s Victoria harbour, has sparked anger among Hong Kongers, some of whom read a political message behind it.

Many Facebook users employing the hashtag #HongKongIsNotChina expressed their ire at the error on the film’s official page, despite Paramount swiftly apologising for the error and deleting the poster.

Arrival Movie (@arrivalmovie) An error was made in an "Arrival" poster by a 3rd party vendor. It's been corrected and we are disappointed we didn't catch the error.

The studio blamed a third-party vendor who had created the poster, leading some Facebook users to intimate that the vendor was likely pushing their own political agenda, rather than being sloppy on Photoshop.

The poster was one of 12 released this week by the company depicting various landmarks with the tagline: “Why are they here?” The film stars Amy Adams as a linguist trying to communicate with aliens, following their invasion of Earth. It premieres at this year’s Venice film festival.