Playboy magazine will file a criminal complaint against freelance journalist Marcel Anders for misrepresenting an interview with legendary music composer Ennio Morricone. The interview, which was published in the December edition of the German-language version of Playboy, claimed that 90-year-old Morricone had called American director Quentin Tarantino a “cretin” and had trashed his directorial approach. The article also claimed that Morricone had disparaged the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which gave him an honorary Oscar in 2007.
Morricone denied the statements attributed to him, and said he had only the highest regard for Tarantino, who has sampled his compositions in his films and collaborated with the composer on the 2105 neo-Western The Hateful Eight. The score bagged Morricone his first Oscar.
The magazine called the interview “an intolerable breach of journalistic ethics”, and apologised to its readers “for failing to save you from this farce of an interview”, Variety reported. “...sections of the interview published by us do not accurately reflect the words spoken by Mr Morricone,” Playboy Germany editor-in-chief Florian Boitin told the magazine’s 65,000 subscribers through an electronic newsletter. Anders had met Morricone at his house in Rome a few months ago, and had added quotes from previously published interviews to his article, Boitin said.
Marcel Anders has confessed to misquoting the composer and misrepresenting his words. In his statement, quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, Anders said, “I sincerely apologize to the Maestro [Morricone] and everybody involved. I should have stuck to the original interview conducted in Rome and not have added anything that is incorrect. That was a terrible mistake to do. Please accept my apology.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Anders is “an established and well-regarded music journalist in Germany”.