Hollywood got a shock today. In an unprecedented piracy case, the new x-men movie got relased to the internet one month before its official release.
In a case of piracy that some analysts called unprecedented, untold thousands of people watched a version of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” online Wednesday, a full month before its scheduled theater release.
The film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, said it did not know how the unfinished copy of the comic book adaptation was leaked onto the Internet. The copy was missing many special effects and included temporary sound and music. Nonetheless, it circulated widely online beginning late Tuesday, even prompting some viewers to publish reviews, favorable and unfavorable, of the hotly anticipated film. “Wolverine” stars Hugh Jackman in the title role and is set to open on May 1.
The troubling leak — which some people initially dismissed as an April Fool’s Day prank — occurred at a time when media companies are working harder than ever to curtail digital piracy of content. Illicit recordings of films usually appear on the Internet shortly after their theater debuts, but leaks before the premiere dates are rare. Hollywood studios spend millions of dollars to track every step of the film production process to avoid such potentially costly leaks.
It may just be one off incident where the tightly controlled production process was breached by some disgruntled member. But it highlights the ease with which a leak like this can be executed in the connected digital age.