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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Tech / Film / Nerd Wolverine Vs. The Pirates

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 1:07 PM

Apparently, a workprint version of next month's Wolverine movie has been pirated and placed on most of the online torrent sites. Breaking nerd news site Ain't It Cool News is trying to take the high road by refusing to run any reviews of the pirated film:

We Don't Want Your Wolverine Reviews...

Not yet, at least. Not until the film screens in an actual theater. Because the only way you're seeing it right now is through illegal channels, and we're not going to condone that.

I hate running this story, but the deluge is about to come. Forums on other movie news sites are already overrun with links and reactions to a fairly high quality studio workprint that leaked this evening - and I don't care to comment on any of it because I don't want to encourage piracy at a time when the studios are laying off employees in droves. This is bad, bad, bad for the business.

I believe this is the earliest torrent leak of a major studio film, and so it'll be an important test of how much online piracy actually affects movies. I suspect it's actually not that much, and that the movie will live or die on its own (specious) merits. But we know who the studios will blame if Wolverine underperforms on the weekend of May 1st.

Comments (21) RSS

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viral marketing bait bite in 3...2.....1

Posted by mene on April 1, 2009 at 1:14 PM

But wait- don't all the kids think there's no such thing as intellectual property theft?

Posted by Big Sven on April 1, 2009 at 1:17 PM

april fools?

Posted by matty d on April 1, 2009 at 1:18 PM

@3: Nope, it's the real deal.

But it's still not complete. According to the comments at the Pirate Bay there are still some green screens, the cgi isn't in, and you can still see cables and stuff on the actors when they're doing stunts.

I will be waiting 'til it's out in theaters, so I can see the whole kit and caboodle at once. I wanna be wowed. Mind you, if there's a decent torrent of the full movie, I wouldn't be above skipping the theater to watch it in the comfort of my own home...

Posted by TVDinner on April 1, 2009 at 1:23 PM

I thought the trailer of the movie was pretty good, at least when I saw it on the big screen... I might just be overly hopeful because I really want this movie to be good. I don't know why.... X-Men 3 was just such a piece of crap, it really should have killed my desire to see any other X-Men related movies.

I won't watch the pirated version. I think this is one of those movies that I'd rather see in the theater...

Posted by Julie in Eugene on April 1, 2009 at 1:31 PM

*affects

Posted by duh on April 1, 2009 at 1:31 PM

#6 just made me snort!

Posted by matty d on April 1, 2009 at 1:36 PM

There has been negative buzz over this movie for a while now. Reshoots, costs overruns, etc. Wouldn't be surprised if the studio released the bootleg themselves so the have a fall guy when the movie tanks in May.

Just a thought.

Posted by Rotten666 on April 1, 2009 at 1:36 PM

I wonder if this is the new plan if studios think that a movie is going to bomb. Leak the movie on the interwebs, and then when the stinker does bomb they can blame the pirates.

It used to be you could tell if a movie would be bad because they wouldn't let reviewers pre-screen. Maybe the signal now is that it gets leaked online first.

Posted by Collin on April 1, 2009 at 1:39 PM

You know I think that since there has been such negative buzz about this movie.... wait (...wait...wait) is there an echo (...echo...echo) in here?

Just a thought. For the third time.

Posted by LogopolisMike on April 1, 2009 at 1:44 PM

Nice edit there. Way to circumvent the strikethrough shame.

Posted by duh on April 1, 2009 at 1:52 PM

I kinda watched it before surfing over to read this. It is a pretty good quality print that is 95% complete. I am going to watch this in the theaters anyway when it comes out since some of the special effects were made for the big screen

Posted by Niteray on April 1, 2009 at 1:58 PM

Good! I hope all movies get leaked online first so that all the retards watch the incomplete movie by themselves instead of taking up space in the theater.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on April 1, 2009 at 1:58 PM

What I want to know is, where the hell is the leak of the new Harry Potter? That shit has been in the can and ready for release since before November, and I'd like nothing more than to stick it to the WB studio for sitting on it out of pure greed.

Posted by mojo mojito on April 1, 2009 at 1:58 PM

@14, JJ Abrams' Star Trek movie's been in the can since last December, too.

The Wolverine workprint has temped music, too -- I noticed scoring from Transformers and the Dark Knight in different scenes.

Posted by Yarrrr on April 1, 2009 at 2:05 PM

I'd like to challenge you on the earliest release, back when the first Hulk movie came out a workprint version also hit the internet before the official release. If I remember right it was just shy of 2 months but I could be wrong, this is certainly exciting news that finally people are paying attention to us. :D

Posted by Chris on April 1, 2009 at 2:07 PM

@10

problem?

Posted by Rotten666 on April 1, 2009 at 2:15 PM

I find it interesting that in a nation where everyone seems so alike, kids dress alike, everyone aspires to the same big house big car big job big this big what ever. Fast food is the same coast to coast, Starbucks McDs, etc, that a movie series about "other" "odd" "mutant" is so popular.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn on April 1, 2009 at 2:46 PM

@18, it's familiarity that makes summer movies so predictably popular. For instance, this Wolverine movie is basically the same exact story we already saw in X:Men 1 & 2.

Posted by Yarrrr on April 1, 2009 at 3:14 PM

@2 - no. There is no such thing as Intellectual Property.

You can't steal what's already free.

Posted by I.P. Freely on April 1, 2009 at 4:15 PM

Regardless of whether piracy is hurting the movie industry or not (probably is, but not much more than Netflix), another big issue touched no by Ain't It Cool News is the "live or die by the opening weekend" mentality of the industry.

If a movie isn't in the top 10 the day it comes out, it's a flop. There's no push to sustain movies more than a week. It's a stupid way to run a business.

Posted by RobotRevolution on April 2, 2009 at 7:54 AM