History ShowWithinAShow / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/HowlingIIITheMarsupials'': There are two. Donny is acting in a horror film called ''The Shapershifters Part 8''. He wants Jerboa to join the cast, but she's never seen a horror film before, so he takes her to a [[TheresNoBInMovie B-movie]] called ''It Came from Uranus''.

* ''Film/TheTallGuy'' features Creator/JeffGoldblum as a struggling actor who quits his job as sidekick to popular, and abusive offstage, comedian Ron Anderson (Rowan Atkinson in a hilarious [[SelfEffacingHumor self-parody]]). He auditions unsuccessfully for parts in several plays, and finally lands the lead role in a musical version of ''Film/TheElephantMan'' entitled, according to his agent, "'Elephant', I think; with an exclamation point, presumably".

* ''Film/Logan'' involves actual real-life X-Men Comics, based on the "real" X-Men in the X-Men movie series. The comics themselves inspired a location to be built by other characters in the movie.

* The ''Franchise/{{Scream}}'' series has the ''Stab'' series, which act as ''Scream''[='=]s analogue to itself in terms of their influence, and which crops up several times throughout the sequels.

* In ''Film/FindingNeverland'', the production of ''PeterPan'' ends up marking a turning point for the characters, both on opening night (for James and Peter) and as part of a later, special production (for Emma, Sylvia, and Sylvia's other sons). Also a Type 1 (see above).

* ''Film/BadEducation'' is about two old friends/lovers, Ignacio and Enrique, who work together to film a script one of them wrote called "The Visit". "The Visit" chronicles the story of a {{transvestite}} named Ignacio/Zahara who attempts to {{blackmail}} a PedophilePriest who molested him/her. The script also includes [[WriteWhoYouKnow an account of Ignacio's and Enrique's boyhood love]].

** The first ''Stab'', featured in ''Film/{{Scream 2}}'', is [[PlotParallel based on the events of the first film]] (specifically, [[RippedFromTheHeadlines the true crime novel that Gale Weathers wrote about what happened]]), albeit with some artistic embellishment and [[HotterAndSexier extra titillation]]. It's directed by Creator/RobertRodriguez[[note]]Which is only revealed in the fourth film. In real life, he directed ''Film/TheFaculty'', another film written by Kevin Williamson.[[/note]] rather than Creator/WesCraven, and stars [[Series/BeverlyHills90210 Tori Spelling]] as Sidney, Luke Wilson as Billy, [[Series/{{Friends}} David Schwimmer]] as Dewey, Creator/HeatherGraham as Casey, and "the guy who drove Jane Seymour's stagecoach for one episode of ''[[Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman Dr. Quinn]]''" as Randy. A major plot point in ''Scream 2'' is whether the killer may have been [[MurderSimulators inspired]] by watching ''Stab'' and becoming obsessed with the massacre from the first film, [[spoiler:and one of the killers does indeed seek to blame violent movies like ''Stab'' in order to [[AttentionWhore create a media circus for his inevitable trial]]]].

* ''Film/TheTallGuy'' features Creator/JeffGoldblum as a struggling actor who quits his job as sidekick to popular, and abusive offstage, comedian Ron Anderson (Rowan Atkinson in a hilarious [[SelfEffacingHumor self-parody]]). He auditions unsuccessfully for parts in several plays, and finally lands the lead role in a musical version of ''TheElephantMan'' entitled, according to his agent, "'Elephant', I think; with an exclamation point, presumably".

* ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' has ''itself'' as the show-in-a-show: [[spoiler: at the end of the film, Sheriff Bart, the Waco Kid and Hedy "that's Hedley!" Lamarr go to a cinema to see [[MindScrew how their own film ends]].]]

* In the film version of ''Film/{{Matilda}}'', Matilda's family is a huge fan of ''Million Dollar Sticky'', a game show hosted by (or whose host is played by) Jon Lovitz, where contestants are painted with honey and then invited to roll around in money. Whatever cash sticks to them they get to keep.

* In TheViewAskewniverse, there is ''Bluntman and Chronic'', a fictionalized superhero comic book version of Jay and Silent Bob. The two went to Hollywood in ''Film/JayAndSilentBobStrikeBack'' in order to prevent its leap to the big screen.

* The film version of ''RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'' has the players acting out ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' for the title characters, while acting out ''The Murder of Gonzago'' with puppets who are themselves acting out the play-within-a-play with finger puppets. A show within a show within a show within a show.

* ''HomeAlone'' has the gangster movies ''Angels with Filthy Souls'' and ''Angels with Even Filthier Souls''. (While the titles parody ''Film/AngelsWithDirtyFaces'', the scenes that Kevin watches does not.)

* In ''{{Hairspray}}'', Tracy and Penny are huge fans of the Corny Collins Show, a regional American Bandstand-type show. This overlaps with Type 1 when Tracy gets a part on the show and supports Corny's dreams of integrating the show(instead of only permitting black performers to appear on "Negro Day").

* ''Film/{{Phffft}}''!: Judy Holliday is the head writer of ''Serena, Medical Wife'', NBC's hit show.

* ''Film/Detention'' has the franchise Cinderhella, a ''Franchise/Saw'' {{Expy}} focused on a woman torturing teenagers on prom night, as a type 2 and 4. Ione, Clapton, Riley and Taylor are shown to like the movie, but when a killer appears murdering students using a Cinderhella mask, it becomes a type 4.

* ''Film/TheHoliday'' features a movie trailer for a fictional film called "Deception" starring James Franco and Lindsay Lohan.
* ''Friends with Benefits'' features a romantic comedy starring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones.