Fictional news bulletins in TV shows and films mk.3

Well the original two threads have been archived now.

I came across the trailer for the film Stormbreaker recently, and it had me puzzled.

In the UK trailer, it uses Simon McCoy and the BBC News branding.



But the US trailer uses the same footage with different branding and dubbing of his lines.



I'm slightly confused on why such a thing would have been done.

Not a bad film, that. Though what you mention really is weird - the film was filmed and set in Britain, so surely keeping it as BBC News would be more realistic, and it's not as if the BBC isn't a well-known brand in America. Though without wishing to delve into any associated nastiness, I note that The Weinstein Company was the US distributor - the same company that, among other things, told Peter Jackson that they wanted Lord of the Rings to be one two-hour film - so I wonder whether any meddling might have been down to them? Very strange, in any case.

Though going back to news bulletins in film and TV, if you've ever wondered where Simon McCoy's Twitter avatar comes from, look no further:

Who would want to dub over Simon McCoy? A maniac!

In all seriousness, I have seen this from Shaun of The Dead:

There's another scene in the same film where all of the TV channels say Standby for Further Information and it has channels like E4 and MTV.

start of clip:


Elsewhere in this film (but I can't find an online clip) it also features Jayne Secker and somebody from BBC News who's name I can never remember.

Plenty of newsreaders in this I seem to recall. As it's set in and around Norwich Stuart White from Look East appears quite a few times - think there's a sequence set to the BBC News countdown even!

I seem to remember Sky News being used in Independence Day, was that different in the US release?

The Lego Movie featured Good Morning America presenters in the US and GMB presenters in the UK release if I remember correctly.

In the last thread it was said that Sky wasn't in the US version, although I did have a US DVD and it was, but it could have just been that version on the disc.

The film was released only a few months before Fox News launched (July 96, Oct 96) which begs the question, was what became Fox originally intended to be named Sky News and they put that in there for promotional reasons (Because I doubt kids living in a trailer in the middle of a desert are going to tune into a UK satellite station for news) or was it because it was the quickest thing they could use (surely Fox local affiliates were available?)

Sky News was also used in the first Mission Impossible film - apparently this was at the behest of Tom Cruise, who caught some of it whilst in London. Bob Friend was presenting, and the story goes that Cruise was that impressed by him that he gave Friend a role as the newsreader in Mission Impossible.

And if you've ever wondered what Sky News might look like in 21:9, wonder no more! Do excuse the dodgy spelling on the graphics:





Sadly, Jayne Secker and Lukwesa Burak were confined to 16:9:





(Film is Kingsman: The Secret Service - pictures courtesy of GradyACN over at Media Spy)

Oh that reminds me - You Me and The Apocalypse from Sky One used Sky News inserts and IIRC was it Anna Botting who appeared on that?

It was Anna Jones:

it was The Lego Ninjago Movie - the show in question being 'Good Morning Ninjago'.

Here's a few from Sky News & tve internacional from Aquaman. There are more included though. Although I cannot find them online.