Corona | Coming Attractions

In the early evening hours of March 31 someone leaked a 108-minute work-in-progress, high-quality version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on to the internet.

While copies of high profile releases have been leaked online before, most notably Universal's 2003 release Hulk which was available for download two weeks before its June release, this is the earliest ever that a big-budget summer release has been available for pirating; the movie isn't scheduled to open in theaters until one month from today.

The quality of the image is at least as good as a DVD. While certain scenes do not have their completed effects and wires are still visible on the actors for their action scenes during some moments, the film can still be watched and the storyline understood. It's generally believed by most movie websites (including this one) that not all of the reshoots filmed this past winter are included in the leaked cut.

"We forensically mark our content so we can identify sources that make it available or download it," a Fox spokesman told Variety in their coverage of the story. "The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law -- the courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts and the last person who committed such a crime is still in jail."

Furthermore, in their piece covering the event The New York Times is reporting that the F.B.I. and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are both investigating the illegal act. Speaking with an expert on downloads the Times is reporting that the Wolverine movie has been downloaded "in the low hundreds of thousands of times in its first 24 hours on the internet."

How this leaked copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine will effect the film's opening box office remains unknown. [Related story]