Film Named 'The Omicron Variant' Released In 1963? No, Viral Claim Is False!

World Health Organisation has declared the Omicron variant of coronavirus as a variant of concern as it is heavily mutated, with up to 30 mutations observed in the spike protein. On 2 December, India detected the first cases of the new variant in Karnataka.

On the same backdrop, a photo of a purported film, namely 'The Omicron Variant', is viral on social media. The tag line on the film poster reads, "The day the Earth was turned into a cemetery".

A Bollywood film director and producer, Ram Gopal Verma, shared the picture with a caption, "Believe it or faint ..This film came In 1963 ..Check the tagline".

An Indian actor and host, Gautam Rhode, shared the picture and captioned, "What are the odds … this movie released in 1963! #OmicronVariant".

The photo is viral on Twitter and Facebook.

Claim:

A film, namely 'The Omicron Variant' released in 1963.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the claim and found it false. There is no such film with the name 'The Omicron Variant', and the viral picture is an edited poster of a 1974 film, 'Phase IV'.

We searched the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) for 'The Omicron Variant'. IMDB is an online database of films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online. It led us to three films that carried 'Omicron' in their title.

'Omicron' is a 1963 film described on IMDB as, "An alien takes over the body of an Earthman in order to learn about the planet so his race can take it over."

'Project Omicron' is a 1999 film summarised on IMDB as, "Join Will Walker as he test pilots a captured enemy ship that shadows an unearthly childhood. On the mission, he must work with a team of scientists who are members of a secret society."

'The visitor from Planet Omicron' is a 2013 film narrated on IMDB as, "An alien comes to earth with a botanical virus, but a gutsy Arizona widow wins him over with her garden-fresh cooking, and then tries to topple the corrupt government that put him up to it."

None of those mentioned above films was based on the global pandemic.

Then, we conducted a Google reverse image search of the viral picture.

We found a Twitter post by Becky Cheatle, an Irish writer/director associated with Virgin Media Ireland and X-Pollinator.

On 28 November, she posted photos of three film posters from the '70s and captioned, "I Photoshopped the phrase "The Omicron Variant" into a bunch of 70s sci-fi movie posters #Omicron". Her post garnered over 300 retweets and 900 likes.

Later, on 1 December, she clarified that her previous post carrying photos of three film posters was an outcome of editing and is just for fun. She captioned, "Hi. It's been brought to my attention that one of my posters is circulating on Spanish language Twitter as "proof" of a COVID hoax. It's just a goof because I thought Omicron Variant sounded like a 70s sci-fi movie. Please do not get sick on account of my dumb joke. Thanks".

We also found that the viral photo resulted from editing the poster of a 1974 film, 'Phase IV'. The film is explained on IMDB as, "Desert ants suddenly form a collective intelligence and begin to wage war on the inhabitants. It is up to two scientists and a stray girl they rescue from the ants to destroy them." The viral film poster and 'Phase IV posters are similar. Also, the name of the actor, director, writer and producer is identical in both the posters. Below you can see the comparison.

To conclude, an edited photo of a poster of a 1974 film, 'Phase IV', went viral as a film poster of the non-existing 1963 film 'The Omicron Variant'. However, no such film has been made. So, the viral claim is false.

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