Universal Pictures reached a settlement with the Alaska Press Club today over a bunch of fake newspaper stories it created as viral marketing for The Fourth Kind. The Milla Jovovich-starring horror flick, which uses a bunch of "found" footage, claims to be "based on actual case studies." Of course, that's just marketing. It's actually based on a script! But that didn't stop Universal from putting together fake news articles describing the events the film is supposedly based on. The studio made its mistake when it used the names of real-live newspapers like the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Nome Nugget on those fake stories. Now it owes $20,000 to the Alaska Press Club and another $2,500 to a scholarship fund. And for the first time in years, journalism wins!
The Fourth Kind Pays Up [CHUD]