Netflix on Bird Box Footage: We're Not Pulling It

Company used clip from real train disaster in Quebec that killed 47
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 18, 2019 9:21 AM CST
Netflix on Bird Box Footage: We're Not Pulling It
This image released by Netflix shows Sandra Bullock in a scene from the film "Bird Box."   (Merrick Morton/Netflix via AP)

Netflix says it will review its practices on stock footage after a controversy involving its newest horror film, but it's not planning to completely bend on what caused the original controversy. The company recently came under fire for using clips from a 2013 rail disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec—an accident that killed 47—in both its latest hit film, Bird Box, and in its Travelers series, a move that upset the Canadian town and led Mayor Julie Morin to decry the company for a "lack of respect." Gizmodo reports the footage, obtained for both productions from a stock imagery company called Pond5, will be taken out of Travelers, but it's staying in Bird Box. "We will keep the clip in the movie," a Netflix spokesman said in a statement Thursday, per the AP.

"You can't imagine what those images represent for many people here," one town official tells the New York Times. "It's a reality that many worked really hard to try to forget." Pond5 CEO Jason Teichman says his company will review its practices on disseminating footage to clients, noting "all of us here feel awful" on how the clip was used in this case. Netflix isn't saying exactly why it won't take the footage out, but after her original outcry, Morin has had a chat with a company rep and feels Netflix is sincere in its desire to ensure something like this doesn't happen again; Morin notes she was "satisfied with this exchange." (Another undesirable tie to Bird Box: people driving with their eyes covered.)

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