By now you almost certainly know that a work print of Wolverine has hit the bit torrent sites. You might also know that on one section a major Australian studio’s name is apparent. Now, allegations have been flying and conspiracy theories abound about how or why this happened.
Copyright 20th Century Fox
I have to say, I am more likely to believe the studio in question when it said they it almost certainly wasn’t related to them as they didn’t even have a full copy of the workprint. As far as I know, each VFX house is rarely, if ever, given a complete work-print of the film. You usually get just the sequences your studio is working. FYI, the work-print is an edit without all the VFX and extras added. It will often still have green screen or very rough slap-comps to give the idea of the shot.
In any event, it has been quite interesting seeing people’s reactions. The first reactions were overwhelmingly along the lines of “Why would anyone want to watch an unfinished movie?” to which I respond “Are you so completely off your gourd on bad crack that you haven’t been on the internet in the last 5 years?” People will watch stick figure storyboards with fake voiceovers if they think they are on the cutting edge of downloadzzzz and if they feel like they are sticking it to the man. Heck, even I would be interested in watching a copy if it was included on the Blu-Ray release.
Some people suggested a marketing campaign from Fox to which I say “Is it possible that you might actually be considered barely mentally competent to stand trial for your obvious crimes against humanity?” (I find it’s best to spice up these posts every now and then). I mean, sure we are all aware of cynical viral marketing from the super corporations. Sony seems to be particularly guilty of this, however I think that most sane individuals with any shred of common sense and non-moron infused genes would say that, on average, it would be an exceedingly bad idea to have your studio’s name on a leaked version of a $150 million film. As one less than sharp tool suggested: “Lots of people know about the studio now”, as if studios need to get their name out to the 14 year old loser nerd bit-torrent community. Obviously where the bucks are . . .
Others suggested someone working at the studio. I guess that could be possible, but you would have to really not want a future in the industry if you thought that stealing and uploading a copy of an unreleased movie was a good move. This of course assumes that most people in the industry are of at least average intelligence, but I guess there are always what can be politely called “outliers” 
Of course you have couriers and a myriad of other people, however the drives etc are usually pretty secure.
We may never find out what really happened, however Fox have said they have digitally watermarked all their prints, so it should be interesting to see how it play out.
