Top 10 Movie Leaks

Ridley Scott’s 2012 science-fiction film might’ve looked a little different had this script been used. After its release, a script entitled “Alien: Engineers” found its way into the public eye – and was revealed to be an early version of the script for “Prometheus”. Its content suggested a different and potentially more visceral take on the material, with more emphasis placed on the facehuggers and chestbusters of the “Alien” films. Interestingly, the script was written by Jon Spaihts, the lead writer of “Prometheus” prior to Damon Lindelof’s arrival. Make of that what you will.

Sometimes good can come from unfortunate circumstances. This happens to have been the case for Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s “Deadpool” screenplay, which was leaked in October 2010... and received glowing appraisal. Despite a positive review of the script, though, 20th Century Fox went into damage control mode, going so far as to threaten legal action against the screenwriter responsible for the leak. What’s most intriguing is that the 2016 “Deadpool” film appears to be using the same basic script, and Reese and Wernick remain attached to the film.

Sly Stallone and company probably didn’t see this one coming. Three weeks before the action film “The Expendables 3” was set to release, a DVD-quality copy of the film found its way onto file sharing sites. This left the film’s distributor, Lionsgate, less-than-pleased – they filed a lawsuit against ten anonymous people for perceived copyright infringement, and sent letters to a number of sites. Considering that “The Expendables 3” was pirated over 2 million times within the first week, we certainly understand their desire to protect their interests.

The Internet can be rather volatile at times. Case in point: a leak in 2008 indicated that “Terminator: Salvation” would end with Sam Worthington’s cyborg character Marcus taking on the appearance of the deceased John Connor. Not only did this supposed detail from the shooting script turn out to be true, but director McG and company had contemplated an even darker ending. However, because of the resulting backlash, it was decided to instead rewrite the ending of “Salvation”, with Connor living thanks to Marcus’ sacrifice.

Wolverine just can’t catch a break, can he? At the very least, his solo outing “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” faced its own struggles when, in March 2009, a full workprint of the film was leaked onto the web. Featuring unfinished special effects work and placeholder text, it prompted investigation by the FBI and MPAA. Though the perpetrator of the leak was found, the workprint of “X-Men Origins” was said to have been downloaded about 4.5 million times by the film’s actual release.

It would seem trust is a hard thing to come by in Tinseltown. Director Quentin Tarantino might have been feeling this after the script for his upcoming film “The Hateful Eight” was leaked to the public in January 2014. According to Tarantino, copies of the script were entrusted to a small number of close friends like Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. The incident caused Tarantino to not only briefly cancel “The Hateful Eight” and consider releasing it as a novel, but also file a lawsuit against Gawker, the site responsible for the leak.

Talent, intelligence and drive couldn’t protect Orson Welles’ first film “Citizen Kane” from turmoil. According to the famed 1971 novel-length essay “Raising Kane”, co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz sent a copy of the script for “Citizen Kane” to his friend Charles Lederer. Lederer, in turn, would show the script to his aunt Marion Davies... the mistress of William Randolph Hearst. Incensed at the prospect of being a partial subject in “Citizen Kane”, Hearst set in motion the measures that would ensure Welles’ project suffered a financial failure.

We imagine the Sith really would want vengeance for this. Mere hours after “Revenge of the Sith” opened in theaters, file sharing sites were granted a copy of the film – but there was a catch. This copy bore time-stamps that marked it as a workprint, and it was eventually revealed to have been stolen by a post-production employee, who shared it with several people from which the leak sprung. Despite these individuals being charged, the film was soon afterwards released in Shanghai as a laughably poorly-translated bootleg DVD.

For a moment there, things looked bleak. “Scream 2” had just begun filming by July 1997, with Kevin Williamson’s script firmly in place... and then the script leaked onto the Internet, revealing the identities of the four intended killers. Fortunately, Williamson was quick to act, reducing the number of killers and reworking certain characters’ roles accordingly, while the production continued with a partial script. This incident also meant tighter restrictions on plot details; for instance, script pages revealing the identity of the killer were only provided the day of shooting to prevent additional leaks.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
- ‘Soul Plane’ Bootleg in Stores Before Theatrical Release
- ‘Thor’ Script Leaked
- ‘Superman: Flyby’ Script Leaked
- ‘Suicide Squad’ Comic-Con Trailer Leaked Online

It was a treasure trove of information... but with a dire cost. In November 2014, large amounts of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s confidential files – from internal emails to employees’ personal information – were leaked by the dubiously-named Guardians of Peace. In addition to demanding the cancellation of the film “The Interview”, the GOP hackers also set about leaking then-upcoming Sony films such as “Annie”, “Mr. Turner” and, perhaps the biggest of them all: the script for the 2015 James Bond flick, “Spectre”. While some of the info revealed may have been intriguing, the damage done to Sony, its employees and its reputation more than cements the tragedy at play here.

Do you agree with our list? What do you feel was the most news-worthy movie leak? For more cinematic Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.