History Main / FilmFelons

* In the second ''VideoGame/IExpectYouToDie'' game the BigBad, John Juniper is a SpyFiction movie actor/ director who is using his lates spy movie as a cover for a real world domination scheme.

* While filming ''Film/{{Pusher}} 2'', the director hired actual criminals to consult on filming a car dealership heist. He later suspected that the criminals were using the job to case the dealership for a real heist of their own.

-->-- Kenneth Cole describing the origins of his shoe store, Kenneth Cole Productions.

* The "Film Flam" episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' used this trope.

** The punchline to the episode is, of course, that [[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs no one would want to see the [=PPGs=] in a movie]], ''[[SelfDeprecation The Powerpuff Girls Movie]]'' having been in production at that point.

* Happened in ''ComicStrip/NickKnatterton'' once.
* In an early ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' comic, criminals show up to try out for parts as themselves. The camera crew and producers thought it was just a show, right up until the robbery.
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} deals with one of these in a short story called Game of Death. [[spoiler:Turns out it was the son of the man who sent him to the island in the first place. He lets his employer live, despite sending him into a death trap...but not after scaring the crap out of the old guy.]]
* In an early issue of the ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'', Namor bought a movie studio, and then hired the FF to be stars in his "movie". It was all a scheme to split each male member from the team to either face a death trap or Namor alone. Of course they survived and took him down together.
* A Dutch comic about the ''Beagle Boys'' had the titular crooks use this method to rob a bank. Unfortunately for them, the bank they choose had already been chosen as location for an actual film shooting that day, so the bank director had prepared a bag of fake money to be used for in the movie.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' universe, Cosmos Pictures is a film production company [[CovertGroupWithMundaneFront used as a front]] for the criminal activities of Mr. Rastapopoulos.

* Subverted (via a variant) in the Swedish movie ''Dubbel 8'': While the two main characters use a film they're making as an excuse to see a girl naked, they actually shoot and release the movie.
* The Creator/WoodyAllen comedy ''Film/TakeTheMoneyAndRun'' saw {{Stupid Crook|s}} Virgil Starkwell plan a bank robbery that involved bringing a film camera and someone pretending to be a movie director along to make it look like a film shoot so not to alarm anyone or make anyone want to call the cops. The plan fails horribly when it turns out that another, completely unrelated criminal gang decided to rob the same bank on the same day... and are much more competent at it.

* ''Film/{{Argo}}'' is a ''heroic'' variant; making a fake cheesy low-budget sci-fi movie as a cover for rescuing hostages. BasedOnATrueStory!

* The whole plot of the first book of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. Granted, it's a theater play, but it still fits the trope. Actor-playwright Olaf wants to marry Violet to get his clutches on her fortune. Knowing you've got to be married by a judge, he arranges a whole play to be performed, in which there is a wedding scene. Actually the whole play is a (horribly dragging, tedious and devoted only to praising him) wedding scene. Of course, he casts himself as the groom, Violet as the bride and a local judge as... Well, you guessed it.

%%* An episode of ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' - "Epic" - was about this.

* Similarly, an episode of ''Series/{{Hustle}}'' featured the gang staging a fake Bollywood film to trick a mark out of all his money.

* A three part adventure of Series/Batman1966 finds the Penguin pretending to be producer and director of a film. Batman is not fooled for one second, but plays along to find out what his ultimate scheme is.
* ''Series/CrashZone'' has a non-film example—in the episode "Rear Windows", a criminal gang releases a game on the internet to "crowdsource" a kidnapping strategy from the unaware players.

* ''Series/TheATeam'': The pilot "Mexican Slayride" has the team, through Face's efforts, getting needed supplies from the Mexican film commission by posing as a fake movie company.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfBatman'' episode "Long John Joker" featured Joker pulling one of these as a cover for tracking down a criminals hidden cache from an armored truck heist.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'' episode "Lights! Camera! Danger!" had Jimmy win a screenwriting contest and a Creator/QuentinTarantino-esque director named Quentin Smithee offers to shoot the movie with him and his friends as the stars. In actuality, the director was Jimmy's enemy Professor Calamitous using the shoot as a chance to get revenge on Jimmy and his friends with various death-traps disguised as movie stunts.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}: Renee Frodgers's acting troupe uses their plays as distractions while she steals from the towns they visit.

* In one ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2006 Vol 3]] story, the Queen of Fables first pulls KillAndReplace on a Hollywood producer named Laney Kirswel. Using Laney's identity, she launched a project for an unauthorized and highly inaccurate and slanderous Wonder Woman biography. Her goal was to both ruin Wonder Woman's reputation and to annoy her enough that she would show up on set to protest, at which point the Queen trapped and tried to kill her.

* In the ''Fracnhise/{{Tintin}}'' universe, Cosmos Pictures is a film production company [[CovertGroupWithMundaneFront used as a front]] for the criminal activities of Mr. Rastapopoulos.

* The US porn industry, in a way, this trope writ large. In almost all of the country, prostitution is illegal due to the actions of our particularly strong set of MoralGuardians... But because the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem First Amendment]] protects the act of creating film, you CAN pay somebody to have sex as long as there are cameras running! [[note]]Your mileage may vary by state. There may be some SoCalization in this description.[[/note]]

* SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} deals with one of these in a short story called Game of Death. [[spoiler:Turns out it was the son of the man who sent him to the island in the first place. He lets his employer live, despite sending him into a death trap...but not after scaring the crap out of the old guy.]]

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAndHisAmazingFriends'', Spidey is put into a "movie" wherein the director is actually trying to kill him with the stunts.

%%* An episode of ''Series/TheAvengers'' - "Epic" - was about this.

* In one ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' story, the Queen of Fables first pulls KillAndReplace on a Hollywood producer named Laney Kirswel. Using Laney's identity, she launched a project for an unauthorized and highly inaccurate and slanderous Wonder Woman biography. Her goal was to both ruin Wonder Woman's reputation and to annoy her enough that she would show up on set to protest, at which point the Queen trapped and tried to kill her.