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Film Features

The Best Hollywood Hoaxes for April Fool's Day
David Moats , March 31st, 2009 11:08

In honour of April Fool's Day, The Quietus collects the best Hollywood Hoaxes: from Joaquin's beard to Marilyn's letters; from the Hollywood makeup artists who made Bigfoot to Kubrick's moon landing; from electric shocks in the cinema to faux documentaries with Herzog; it's all here.

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Incident at Loch Ness

Like Blair Witch before it, Incident at Loch Ness masqueraded as a genuine documentary. Ostensibly, a documentary crew followed Werner Herzog as he began shooting his own doc about people who believe in the Loch Ness Monster. His sleazy American producer Zak Penn, who was the actual writer/director of the film, is determined to capture 'Nessie' on film even if he has to make one himself out of plastic. The film goes to such lengths to simulate what it supposedly captured that several news sources reported the red herring Herzog film – not the spoof – to be in production.

Although the film descends into hilarious farce, the beginning is entirely believable, if only because you wouldn't expect Herzog to knowingly agree to be the star of a comedy. But the subject of truth in film which Incident at Loch Ness plays with is a topic that is actually close to Herzog's heart.