"Wolverine" leaked online

[Deberg_1990]

No, i wont post the link and no i have no interest in watching it. But heres the story:




http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-...t-leaks-online



Right now, everything you read about the financial situation in Hollywood is doom and gloom. Studios are laying staff off. Production companies are losing long-standing development deals. Hedge funds are running for the hills. DVDs are dying. No one wants BluRay. If you were to believe every negative thing written, the industry is seemingly days away from shutting down altogether.

Of course, that's not really the case. But it's certainly what you'd think if you only listened to the worst of what's being reported. One of the questions being asked over and over is "What is the real financial impact of piracy?" And since piracy means different things on different films, that's a hard question to answer.

20th Century Fox is about to have an interesting practical test on one of their biggest summer films. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" leaked online today in what appears to be a near-finished DVD quality rip, marred only by a few unfinished FX shots. As soon as files go up, they're coming right back down as Fox legal chases pirates around the web, but that toothpaste is out of the tube, gentlemen. And that sucks.

[more after the jump]


If there's any big-budget movie that's been a whipping boy so far this year, it's "Wolverine." There have been reports, both published and also off-the-record, about problems almost since the start of production. I really like director Gavin Hood and his earlier film "Tsotsi," so I've been waiting, fingers crossed, hoping the bad buzz is just bad buzz, ignoring as much of it as possible. For the film to be so close to release and then get kneecapped by a leak like this is insane. It had to be someone inside the production. I looked at a random three minute segment from the middle of the film this afternoon when first told it was online, and there's no timecode, no watermark... nothing. It's a clean, perfect copy. Someone did that on purpose.

So the question is this... will it hurt the film? I imagine the file will be traded endlessly between now and opening weekend, and no doubt you'll start seeing reader reviews pop up at geek sites from people who "just happened to see the film." And unless word of mouth is orgasmic, I'm guessing this takes a big bite out of that opening weekend. The exact demographic who would open this movie is savvy enough to have the film on their hard-drives right now if they want it. And if they hate what they see, I can't imagine they're going to pay to see it again when it opens.

I hate seeing this happen to anyone, and I take no joy seeing it happen to 20th Century Fox. I think it's bad for the business overall. I think it's obviously a personally-motivated leak, and Fox will no doubt come down like the wrath of Galactus on whoever did it. But in the meantime, I put the question to you guys... what happens to "Wolverine"? Will piracy be the one thing his healing factor can't handle?

[Gravedigger]

Not that I watched the leaked version or anything *clears throat* but if I did, I'd tell fox they need to do some major work before they release it, not only with the CG and wires being implemented, but with the flow and storyline of the scenes.

If I were Fox I wouldn't be pissed that my movie got out as much as I would be pissed that people saw an incomplete version and judge it to their friends and seriously hurt their box office numbers. I'm going to go see it on opening day if not midnight show to see the final version myself.

.... but like I said, I didn't watch it.