Wolverine may be the best at what he does, but can even his beserker rage take on cyber piracy? EW has gotten a news tip that may be a grave misfortune for Fox:According to them, a workprint version of the upcoming May film X-Men Origins: Wolverine has allegedly been leaked, and is making the rounds on some pirating sites.
The story has since been confirmed via a number of sources, and the copy of the film has reportedly been downloaded over 75,000 times.
While many bootleg copies are from earlier editions, and are marred with timecode, studio watermark, and other defects, this copy apparently is a bit more advanced, lacking only a few of the film’s final special effects. Reportedly, the copy of the film has an identifying mark of Rising Sun Pictures, an Australian visual effects company. Whether this means the copy of the film leaked through Rising Sun is not clear.
The problem with this scenario is twofold: (A) it shows there is possibly a large breach in security at Fox, if this DVD-quality bootleg came from them or someone working with the studio on the film, and (B) it could certainly hurt the film if word of mouth starts before the film is even released. (Conversely, if the pirate crowd eats it all up, it’s just going to encourage more pirates to do the same.)
The film is scheduled to be released to the public – in theaters- on May 1.
Those in large cities – give a holler when you see it show up as part of the offerings from the sidewalk vendors.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:25 am
Yes. This is real. A full workprint has leaked to the torrent sites.
http://torrentfreak.com/unfinished-x-men-movie-a-hit-on-bittorrent-090401/
April 1st, 2009 at 9:54 am
You would think Fox would have better security. After what happened with the first Spider-Man movie. I know of several dealers at cons who got busted for selling bootleg copies by Sony.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:00 am
I´m still gonna see it in theater, the advantage is that here in Mexico is going to be released one day earlier.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:10 am
By posting this on one of the biggest comic news sites on the net only going to make people more aware!!!
April 1st, 2009 at 10:11 am
Ah… I just twigged… April fool!!!
April 1st, 2009 at 10:35 am
This isn’t a april fools joke. I saw it on a site last night.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:40 am
From what I hear from people that have already downloaded it, the movie is complete garbage. Negative word of mouth may kill the film before it even hits theaters.
I think it’ll be interesting to see what comes from this. Arguably, the main crowd that this movie would attract are tech-savvy geeks who, at this point, have probably already downloaded and watched the movie, or heard how terrible it was from someone who did. Granted, the general public will still go see the film due to it being a familiar franchise with a lead star who just hosted the Oscars. Still, without the fanboy support, it’ll be interesting to see how well the movie does.
I’m one of the biggest X-Men fans you could meet. I’ll still read any book with an X in the title on merit alone. But even I’m starting to think I might not go see this movie, not based off of some of the early reviews I’m seeing (and pictures of the Baraka-Deadpool don’t help to change my mind either.) Just lost my job last week so I’ve got to be picky about what summer movies I’m going to see in the theater this year.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:48 am
I think everyone should watch the pirated copy just to make Fox choke on the x-men franchise and let the rights revert back to Marvel
April 1st, 2009 at 11:02 am
And how was it ?
Cause Im not excited at all. Trailers were pretty bad.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:17 am
Bad word or not, I’ll wait and see it in the theater. I think that it’s unfair that a movie should be judged when it is unfinished. If I were working on some sort of media project, be it a movie, a game, a book, or a song, I would not want the public to see it until it’s completely finished. Who knows how much this version differs from the final version, but I don’t think anyone should really form an opinion until we see the absolute finished product.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:23 am
Possible Revenge for Fox trying to screw up Watchmen release?
April 1st, 2009 at 11:29 am
No it’s not an April fools joke. Sadly for Fox it’s very real so the joke’s on them. It’s not the worst movie I’ve seen this year but it’s not the blockbuster we all hoped for. Too many liberties are taken with the story, the “Origin” comic is given five minutes of screen time, loads of characters are missing, several characters are merged and one character in particular is completely ruined for the sake of a plot device. In the context of X1-3 it works well but don’t go to see this in theaters expecting something amazing, just turn off your brain and lick up the explosions and growling.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:30 am
K-Mo, the leaked copy is unfinished and (according to Dark Horizons) about 15 minutes shorter than the finished film, so whatever any “people that have already downloaded it” thinks, they haven’t actually seen the movie.
Furthermore, anybody who would watch a big-budget action movie in a torrented copy (even near DVD) is a philistine and an a–hole, so their opinion counts for s–t in my book.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:46 am
Hell, the action figure for, and description of, Deadpool is enough to turn me off of the movie. He was, and I paraphrase, created by General Stryker to be the ultimate mutant in his war against Wolverine.
*sigh*
The Merc With A Mouth, and *this* is what they do to him…
April 1st, 2009 at 11:49 am
It’s a plot. Fox knows the movie is going to blow, so they leak the print and now they can blame “piracy” for the movie’s failure.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
funny…thought torrents were a “no-no” topic on nurama, but heres a big ol announcement for this! btw it is real havnt watched it yet tho…
April 1st, 2009 at 12:21 pm
links to them are, yes, but we’ve discussed comic piracy and torrents dozens of times in stories and news.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I wasn’t able to locate it on the pirated sites I know of, and this is a good thing.
I’m waiting to see this movie at the cinema, so is my wife.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:29 pm
This is no accident. The movie is going to blow and the studio is trying to maximize as much exposure as they can.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I’ve got no desire to see anything like this on the cpu, but one would have to think it could have almost worked for the studio if the product was something people overwhelmingly liked. As it is, it seems like it’s going to have the opposite effect, if any.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:43 pm
The guys of FOX are dicks anyway (just look at the Watchmen-lawsuit), so who cares anyway? People who wanted to see it in the theaters will still buy a ticket after all (if the movie isn´t a big peace of crap of course).
April 1st, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Hahahaha, that sucks. The fact that Deadpool is so bastardized to this degree makes me not care. I didn’t mind when the star for Deadpool was announced but the fact that they turned him into an amalgamation of the Weapon X’s and then threw Cyclops into the fold along with Gambit…….well I’m not digging it especially because Cyclops appearance does not meld well with the X-Men films. In the X-Men films, Cyclops is a 20 something and acts likes hes never met Logan and Logan acts like hes never met Cyclops and doesn’t already like him. Really FOX, this way people see the movie for the turd it is and the movie gets bad word of mouth. Sure some scenes look cool but I’m with comic fans on this one.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Watched it before lunch today. Thought it was an April Fool’s prank too.
Could be worse, but could be lots better – its less Wolverine: Origin and more Wolverine: Weapon X.
Frankly I think this is a good job on karma’s part for their sour grapes over Watchmen.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
@fig, first of all you moron you should see the movie before judging how is it possible for Gambit and Cyclop to have parts in Wolverine’s origin. I thought it was a carefully planned movie because it was brilliant on how they gone about to cover all corners because never once did Cyclop and Wolverine met on screen and Cyclop’s eyes were covered the entire time nor did Wolverine eye seen him. Gambit is in this movie is because he is part of the plot. Yes plot. This movie has a plot.
People should see it in theaters before going off and bash it before actually seeing it.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Guys, Deadpool isn’t “bastardized.”
He’s just not quite the Deadpool we know and love. I’m betting Ryan Reynolds’s face gets disfigured in the course of the movie.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
hey this works out great, fox clearly giving a huge fuck you to the comic fans/deadpool fans in this one.
if you dont find out the deal youre still gonna pay for it making you pay for a movie you might not go see knowing some of the content.
hopefully the reshoots of more deadpool stuff fix or try to fix how they raped this character for no reason i could discern. It clearly wasnt to (or did it succeed at) make the films story better.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:04 pm
honestly…this is no way to see it. I will wait to see a finished big screen showing at the theatre and see it the way it was intended to be screened.
I remember my ex girlfriend’s face when she saw guys on the streets selling bootlegs of her album and that will stick with me for a long time…how cheated and ripped off she felt.
that all said, i saw monsters vs aliens in 3-d imax and it was amazing!!!
April 1st, 2009 at 3:13 pm
The movie was certainly a step above x3 by far. But, I do feel bad for the poor fans of Deadpool. I can understand changing characters somewhat, when giving them the movie treatment, but what’s done to Deadpool, well it was pretty ridiculous. Far from the Merc with the Mouth. I wonder if Ryan still has his same sentiment to do a spin-off now?
April 1st, 2009 at 4:14 pm
This is terrible. I’m a projectionist at a cinema in Australia and we’re showing the movie as a midnight screening. It’s as early as we’re legally allowed to show it and heaps of folks will have already seen it and not come.
Seriously, how does a computer screen compare with the silver screen? Answer: It can’t possibly.
April 1st, 2009 at 4:38 pm
bman, you have to realize that he probably signed a contract indicating his willingness to do a spinoff, so it’s probably academic whether he has the same sentiment or not.
I saw this on the streets of New York today for $5, and all I could think was, “I wouldn’t even pay that much to see a Wolverine solo flick.” Ethics, piracy, all that didn’t even figure in because I never got to the point in the thought process where I had to consider them.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
that movie was terrible. it was every bit as bad as x3 for many of the same reasons. 15 minutes of reshoots aren’t going to save that thing, the story is borring and down right silly with the plot twists at the end. 5 minutes of wolverine as a kid? 5 minutes of him at the weapons plus facility getting adamantium bones and then leaving? get real. wolverine deserves way better than this. it’s a disgrace. and i would have gladly paid money to see it in the theaters after downloading it, had it been even remotely enjoyable, so don’t whine about me being a pirate, ok?
April 1st, 2009 at 5:37 pm
This movie was crap. It’s like they took what people complained about X3 and stepped it up a notch. This makes X3 look like X2 in comparison.
Guys, don’t see this. I know you want to judge it for yourself, but seriously the economy is bad and you do NOT want to drop ten bucks on a ticket to this garbage fest.
If you really want to see a good X-Men movie, save your money and let this stinkfest bomb. Maybe then Fox will sell the right back to Marvel.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:25 pm
In response to one of my earlier comments (“anybody who would watch a big-budget action movie in a torrented copy (even near DVD) is a philistine and an a–hole”), turlodo101@yahoo.com e-mailed me this comment:
“Oh really? I hope you die slow with a lot of pain Gordon McAlpin.”
Since THIS is the appropriate place to respond to comments, here I thought I should repost that here.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Movie was garbage. Plain and simple. I don’t really care with what they did with deadpool. What made me angry was Gambit. Gambit was F.CKING USELESS. There was absolutely NO reason for him to be in the movie. The worst part – he knows Creed is the bad guy so when Logan’s about to attack him he starts fighting Logan? Didnt he see Creed? He was right there! Stupid.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:08 pm
It’s good up until, the “no mouth” Deadpool, what’s really up with that? you have the perfect person to play the Merc with the mouth and you take it away, at the end when it’s most needed. WTF!!!! Does the Director have an extra chromosome or what? I take that back, even the mentally challenged would know better. That’s the most obvious, worst mistake you can make. Especially when you have freaking the perfect person playing him. Good, maybe they’ll stall the release date and freaking fix it.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I am going to agree with Jimmy. I am going to support the movie and see it in the Theatre – it is isn’t fair that one loser had to ruin a lot of people’s hard work on putting this film together – not to mention that what was leaked isn’t even the finished product.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:42 pm
@ Mason Dixon
Having just seen this on a computer screen, I can honestly say it was a blessing that it wasn’t any bigger. Dearchristalmighty that was awful. I’m going for a 3 hour long shower now.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Karma for Fox after their Watchmen shenanigans.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Gotta say guys,big disappointment. I thought it was worse then X3,and Deadpool is bastardized! Some decent parts, but it felt really rushed,and they just trashed so much history by doing it half-assed. I will probably still go and see it in theaters,but it did make me iffy about going? I think everyone should watch the workprint one way or another just because u get to see a lot of the special effects stuff is..theres spots where cgi isnt finished, u see the cords the actors are on and such! The movie is a decent action movie,I actually kinda liked Liev as Sabretooth but it just wasnt Wolverine to me!!!
April 1st, 2009 at 10:37 pm
That’s just insane that they want 3 years. Please if anyone agrees visit this and let everyone know:
http://www.thisisawebsite.info/2009/04/01/unfinished-copy-of-wolverine-movie-leaked-to-bittorrent/
April 1st, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I call foul play.
The studios are catching on to how finicky and whiny a healthy portion of the audiences are for these movies, so they leaked the movie themselves to see what people like and what they don’t like so they could essentially let their audience edit it.
They have listened to every person who bitched about X3 and even Watchmen, and they’re trying to get this one as close to right as they can.
The best way to do that would be to release an incomplete early draft of this movie and see what the fanboys have to say about it. They’re going to cut and then re-edit the whole thing to please as many people as possible. Mark my words. I’m not always right, but I’m pretty sure I’m right on this one.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I have seen the movie and whoever that says that it is garbage, is fool of it. I will begin by saying Im a huge Wolverine fan and I loved the movie. It has his catchy phrases, he is Canadian and Wolverine is one bad MOFO. The movie covers alot of aspect of the Wolverine comics and adds a couple new twist, the action was great even though some CGI was missing. As it is right now the movie is an 1:46 minutes and about 15 minutes remain to be added. The movie rocked, kicked ass and made Wolverine look like one Bad mofo.
I frankly believe that the ones saying this movie blowed, are bitter Watchmen Fans or Dark Knight Fans (BTW the DK sucked and was more about the Origins of Joker, then Batmen).
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:36 am
This was bad movie.
The movie should’ve been completely about WEAPON X and how he becomes a beast and goes nuts. The movie 5 minutes here, there, he’s kid, then in war, then a group (Deadpool, Sabertooth, Blob) that kills, steals and blah blah… revenge, Cyclops, Prof. X, whatever, crap.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:01 am
Regardless, whether I see a pirated copy or not.
I like the idea of experiencing a film in a theater.
(Though I’m not a fan of Fox or Paramount, I do support comic-based movies)
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:18 am
I’m still peeved about what was done to Deadpool. I hope the movie sucks and that word gets around about this. Negative buzz will kill the ticket sales- movie may not flop, but it won’t sell as high as an unspoiled movie will.
Unless it’s really good. But based on the bastardization that X3 was, my money says no.
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:32 am
I just finished watching it
Great quality, but you can tell bits and pieces of some minor special effects and sound effects are missing. It really wasn’t bad to watch at all, I’d rather watch this than a camcorder bootleg.
And as far as the movie goes, it’s pretty good. Deadpool is not Deadpool. He’s cool in the first scene (from the commercial where he deflects bullets with his swords), but at the end he is weapon 11 and all the mutant powers combined, he teleports, has cyclops optic blasts and has claws, and his mouth is sewn shut. Kinda cool I guess but not deadpool.
Sabretooth stuff is gay because they’re brothers in it, and they bond at the end to kill Deadpool together. I’m sure a sequel will make him the Sabretooth we know and love.
Wolverine loses his memory from 2 adamantium bullets to the dome.
Gambit is decent, tweaked a bit. He just kinda powers up anything he touches, but not to explode, just to hit stuff with I guess. It’s cool. And he’s in the movie a fair bit. Cyclops is a high school kid who is captured and held on mutant island.
But overall coolest part/cameo of the movie? Wolverine’s love interest’s sister is Emma Frost/White Queen and she goes diamond to escape the island. Looks cool.
The movie is decent I guess. Same feel as the other X-Men movies. No Dark Knight or nothin.
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:38 am
i have to say that the great strides Dark Knight & Iron Man took forward for super hero movies were lost on this one. sad
Thank god this is the last marvel film not done by marvel.
sad sad script = poor directing = poor acting = disapointment as a fan.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 am
Ahhh man….how does the movie rate? That’s easy…
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2750/18/57/508516619/n508516619_2868825_6750212.jpg
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:12 am
Sorry but Fox had this coming. When you make crap, people will treat it like crap. Their ‘artistic visions’ murdered the plot and characters…one in particular. Any hope for Deadpool showing up on the big screen again has been dashed all to hell..including any hopes for a spin-off movie. Fox, if you’re listening…I hope the recession gets you. It’s time to clean out the old, tired movie studios with the same old and tired directors that have absolutely no idea what they’re doing when it comes to fans of a series. It’s true, your worst fears? That Deadpool gets eyebeam/teleporting/arm-blades, turning him into a crappy version of Mortal Kombat’s Baraka? It’s all true. Thanks Fox. Because you thought the character needed to be deadlier and the kabooms be more spectacular for a finish, you have successfully destroyed one of Marvel’s legendary comic characters onscreen. May your punishment hit you in your collective wallets and hit you HARD.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
“April 1st, 2009 at 2:04 pm Darren Says: @fig, first of all you moron you should see the movie before judging how is it possible for Gambit and Cyclop to have parts in Wolverine’s origin. I thought it was a carefully planned movie because it was brilliant on how they gone about to cover all corners because never once did Cyclop and Wolverine met on screen and Cyclop’s eyes were covered the entire time nor did Wolverine eye seen him. Gambit is in this movie is because he is part of the plot. Yes plot. This movie has a plot.
People should see it in theaters before going off and bash it before actually seeing it.”
Calling me a moron only makes you look like an immature, childish little bitch unwilling to stomach an opposing viewpoint. Like I care what you think about my opinion. This movie completely bastardizes Deadpool to the point that Deadpool is simply destroyed and turned into “Weapon 11″ Thats a bastardization because we never see him in costume and his hallmark of making witty remarks while fighting is completely nullified as his mouth is sewn shut. Plus, Weapon X Wolverine is supposed to happen years before yet Cyclops now has some sort of connection to him? And don’t get me started on tying in Gambit just for the sake of throwing in another mutant we haven’t seen before. This movie literally shits on decades worth of well written X-Men history and if you had any semblance of being a fan, you’d realize it with your small peanut brain. I do want this movie to fail because FOX and the director and whomever wrote this clearly do NOT take the reference material serious enough to be as faithful to it as possible. And NO, I have not and will not watch the pirated version ever. I am basing my opinions on comments here, photos shown and the trailers released so far.
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
** POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT ** (You’ve been warned)
I’ve watched about half of the movie this afternoon (I’m going to watch the rest later tonight)… It’s probably not fair to judge it if it’s not in its final form (and it’s clearly not), but I’m not terribly impressed at this point.
I can say that it glosses past a lot of Wolvie’s history without really giving viewers many details (I’m not an expert on his history, so I was lost in parts), plays fast and loose with that history (from what I know of it), and it throws in a lot of characters that this movie simply didn’t need. I definitely didn’t believe the guy playing Stryker, as it was so clearly a different guy than we saw in X2 (Yeah, I realize he’s supposed to be a lot younger). Oh, and if fans of Dominic Monagahan are going just to see him, I wouldn’t bother ‘cuz he’s not in it much.
It didn’t bother me that the SFX aren’t finished yet. That made for some humorous moments of viewing, and it was interesting to see the wires carrying actors through the air, but my biggest problem with it is that I just don’t find the movie terribly interesting so far. It seems dull and uninspired. Jackman’s doing his best to carry the load, but it’s not enough. He deserves better.
I’m not sure what relevance young Cyclops has to the story yet (all I’ve seen is Sabertooth capturing him at school), and the same goes for Gambit. Blob (whom I can’t stand) just looked ridiculous onscreen.
Anyhow, I stumbled across a link to the movie on accident today in a talkback somewhere else and after debating for a about 30 seconds I went for it. My curiousity got the best of me. I might still see the finished product in the theatre, at a matinee, but I hope the second half is better than the first.
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:13 pm
**POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT** (Again)
OK… I finished it.
I guess it’s better than X3. That’s about the best I can say about it. I’m not familiar with Deadpool… Is this really the guy’s backstory? I would’ve thought that, given Deadpool’s current popularity in the comics, there might’ve been interest in making a Deadpool movie at some point, but that’s going to be hard given how the movie ended.
Ultimately, I’m not sure what the point of this movie was. It was pretty faithful in re-creating the Alkali Lakes scenes from X2, but I didn’t feel like this movie gave us that much additional information. Again, I’m showing my lack of knowledge of some of these characters, but is the plot involving Kayla (Logan’s girlfriend) and Emma Frost the way it is in the comics? I didn’t see any of that coming.
Likewise, I didn’t expect the cameo of a certain X-Men character near the end of the movie, although I should’ve. Seeing him again made just wish X3 had been a better movie, or that there had been an X4 that tried to undo the damage of that film. Anyhow, that cameo is brief and also just seems tacked on (although it conveniently got all of the kids off the island).
Oh, and there’s an added little scene in the middle of the closing credits that’s amusing, but it doesn’t seem to make sense given the events in X2. Then again, there’s a lot in this movie that didn’t make much sense.
There’s yet another added scene at the end of the closing credits, and that’s the best part of the movie. Let’s just say it sets things in motion for a possible 2nd Wolverine movie… The movie that I wanted this one to be.
Anyhow, I probably won’t bother with this one in the theatres… Maybe I’ll rent the DVD around the holidays so I can the finished product.
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:37 pm
@ Robert: Aside from the fact that you don’t know “fool” from “full,” the fact that you thought The Dark Knight sucked but you actually liked this Wolverine movie shows you clearly have no taste. I’d have happily paid to see Wolverine the right way if I’d liked it what I saw in the work print, but this was dull, rushed, and not nearly well-written and acted as TDK was.
I thought Jackman was great, as usual, and thought Liev Schreiber did a good job too (even if he did’t really look like Sabertooth). But that’s all the movie had going for it. Well, that and Wolvie’s girlfriend was really hot. But that’s not enough.