Wolverine Leaked

So, as everyone probably knows by now, 20th Century Fox's upcoming tentpole movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was leaked onto the internet. Everyone and their dog has downloaded it, watched it and the reviews have been making their way through the blogosphere like wildfire. Some are positive, many are negative, and Fox officials assure us that if this version of the movie sucks, it's because it's not the right one. "No, really, there is a better version," the one that wasn't leaked and will be what fans can look forward to on May 1st.

I've kind of been letting this soak in for the last couple of days and my thoughts and feelings are varied. On the one hand, I feel bad for Fox to have the wind taken out of their sails like that. Even if the blog critics were raving about this movie, there is always that contingent of the audience who would be happy with 'screwing the man' and watching it for free on their computer rather than having the full-on theatre experience. With the more negative reviews, they are potentially losing much of that first weekend revenue that is so important to their bottom line. Sure, a bad movie is a bad movie, but if those investors don't make back any of their money on a big project like this, eventually they get gun shy when someone comes up to them and says, "hey, I have this idea for a movie..."

Then there is the small corner of my brain that wonders if this was really an accidental security slip. I mean, Fox has been having a really rough time of late and they need a big success to get them back in the game. I know with only a month to go before release, it is highly unlikely, but what if Fox was to leak the movie, tells everyone that it is not a completed version, gets a whole bunch of responses from the blogosphere and goes back in and reworks things according to fan reaction. There's not enough time for reshoots by this point, so I know I'm just spouting off, but stranger things have happened. At least, I think they have.

Later!

mike