If you had to read the title again just to make sure you were reading it correctly don’t feel too bad, Joey Paur of GeekTyrant probably had to check himself just as I did to make sure we weren’t flung into some parallel universe where Apple has suddenly become some over-sensitive or paranoid company that doesn’t allow bad guys to use iPhones in movies. Here we are though, and yes, Apple has a stipulation that they won’t allow their phones to be used by villains in movies. Read that again if you need to and take your time to absorb it since out of all the petty and hard to follow moves in Hollywood this has to be one of those that makes a lot of directors and even fans go ‘WTF?’ with a sense of real irony to it. In a way it almost sounds as though the use of said phones can be implied in a movie so that people aren’t left believing that villains wouldn’t possibly use Apple phones, but at the same time not being able to show it onscreen is the type of pettiness that goes above and beyond common sense considering how product placement works and the fact that people really DON’T CARE what bad guys in the movies use so long as the story is sound and, well, the bad guy either loses or gets messed up eventually.
Knives Out is one big reasons why this subject has come up since in the movie every member of the family has an iPhone, but only the villain is never shown using his device which is kind of awkward since if a person is really paying attention it might be a huge red flag saying ‘Hey, this person over here! Suspicious! Not like the others!’. In any case it’s such an odd-sounding rule that Apple has laid down that it almost sound as though they’re trying to get their flagship phone taken off the screen if only because it would be one of the biggest ways to tell just who the villain in a story is, in which case they’ve basically shot themselves in the foot and are hoping no one would notice, or perhaps would notice and try to figure out what they’re up to. It’s not exactly as though Apple is missing out when it comes to making a huge chunk of change since people will still purchase Apple products at a massive rate considering their performance and the habits that have been built up through the years and how Apple has made sure that they’ll be at the forefront of every consumer’s mind when it comes to various products that they want/need for their home and lifestyle. Juli Clover of MacRumors has more to say on the matter.
But something like this really does sound kind of odd since it indicates a mindset that some folks can’t possibly follow and a very odd turn of events that does make a lot of people wonder just why any company would say no to anything that might make them a little more money. It’s a quandary to be certain but it’s also something that might look like a boost for other companies since one doesn’t hear about any other tech company saying ‘oh no, villains can’t use our products’. One would think at least that it might be in the best interests of those making murder mysteries especially to go with a company that isn’t going to be quite this picky when it comes to which characters use their products since it would make filming just a little bit easier and wouldn’t shine a light on just who’s who at one point or another until the director was ready to make the reveal. To be fair, without this further knowledge of the edict that Apple laid down people might never have figured it out on their own, but now that it’s out there to be read and pored over by however many readers there’s a good chance that it could become common knowledge among many groups and therefore start to spread throughout the public consciousness after a while. It’s also fair to say that villains can’t use the devices on screen, but could be using them when the audience isn’t looking, but that’s still kind of a strange way to go about laying down the rules to be certain. That’s how Apple wants it though apparently and if people are willing to work with them, that’s how it has to be. Kris Holt of Forbes has his own opinion on the subject.
A lot of things like this don’t make a lot of sense to those of us that aren’t really fully ingrained in the business side of movies and TV and the many different deals that are made with various companies, but sometimes the quirks, demands, and requests do tend to sound a little out there and don’t make a whole lot of sense from a rational standpoint.
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