Netflix has announced that they have removed coverage of a real-life tragedy from their original film Bird Box.
Towards the end of last year, the streaming service came under fire for one scene of Bird Box, which included actual footage of a news report about a train crash in Quebec that killed 47 people in 2013.
After initially standing strong on the matter, Netflix has now confirmed that the scene has been removed, apologising for causing offence.
They told TheWrap: “Netflix and the filmmakers of ‘Bird Box’ have decided to replace the clip. We’re sorry for any pain caused to the Lac-Megantic community.”
Earlier this year, Netflix was formally condemned by Canadian parliament over their inclusion of the news footage, which was initially met with a letter of apology from the streaming service, who maintained that they would not be removing the scene in question.
The same scene was also originally featured in another Netflix original, Travelers, supplied to them by the same third party company, Pond5, though the makers of Travelers were more quick to pull the offending footage.
Sandra Bullock starred in the leading role in Bird Box, which debuted on Netflix in December 2018.
The thriller tells the story of a woman trying to get her two children to safety, after an influx of supernatural creatures take over the world, causing people to take their own lives if they look directly at them.
Although it was met with mixed reviews, it proved extremely popular with Netflix subscribers, quickly becoming the platform’s most-watched film.