It's hard enough to keep a secret, but it's next-to-impossible in the digital age! Take that difficulty and multiply it based on how many people are working on a film, and it quickly becomes obvious that keeping a good script under a tight seal is harder than polishing a bathroom with a toothbrush.
A lot of heavy-hitting film scripts have been leaked early, either through carelessness or greed on the part of someone on set. Here's 10 major movie scripts that ended up getting leaked online way before their release date.
10 Prometheus
The leak of the Prometheus script differs from others in the fact that the final cut of the film wasn't really tarnished. The leaked version was penned by original writer Jon Spaihts before he was replaced with Lost's Damon Lindelof (which explains a few things).
Spaiths draft appeared more true to the Alien franchise mythos, featuring facehuggers and a more traditional chestbursting scene in comparison to the black goo plot device of the final film.
9 The Avengers
The title "Group Hug" will live in infamy as a near-catastrophe for Marvel Studios, which was all-but betting the farm on the upcoming mega-hit The Avengers. According to Samuel L. Jackson, someone stole a copy of his script and tried shopping it around to various would-be buyers.
Given Disney's penchant for suing the pants off of anyone who so much as thinks about ripping off their content, it's a wonder just how excruciating the punishment actually turned out to be for the offending party.
8 Terminator: Salvation
The divisive Terminator: Salvation wasn't truly a bad film, but it came very close to being one. While the script itself was never leaked, a major portion of it was blabbed online by Ain't It Cool News, which threw the fan community into an uproar.
According to the tidbit leak, John Connor was supposed to die at the end of the film, and his skin wrapped over the body of cyborg Marcus Wright so that he could continue to inspire the resistance movement. Director McG denied that this was ever the course, only to walk it back later. Early fan backlash prevented the original vision from becoming true.
7 The Hateful Eight
Quentin Tarantino suffered a humiliating script leak of his Hateful Eight epic, which turned up mysteriously on the website Gawker. According to Tarantino, one of his principle actors was responsible for the leak, but so far it remains a mystery who leaked it.
Tarantino was so upset that he threatened to ax the film completely before changing his mind. He ended up suing Gawker as a means of payback, however.
6 Spectre
Spectre's script got leaked online during the infamous Sony hack, a debacle of epic proportions that saw a ton of properties put out into the public sphere. Spectre had it worse than most, as many productions notes were still attached, forcing the filmmakers to shift the narrative at the 11th hour.
As such, costs ballooned as frustrated creators struggled to fix what they believed was a drab and uneventful ending. That's just the tip of the iceberg. MGM film division President Jonathan Glickman got involved, throwing another voice into an already chaotic ring. In the end, fan backlash would see the ending revised completely.
5 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Fan backlash to a leaked Ninja Turtles script put Michael Bay's back up against the wall almost immediately. While Paramount went into damage control mode, Bay tried defending himself against an onslaught of angry fans who hated the story and claimed it was a disaster.
Even TMNT co-creator Peter Laird joined in on the hate, saying "...one of the reasons I am glad to not own the property anymore...because I don't have to tear what little hair I have left out while trying to fix junk like this." Aye carumba, dudes!
4 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Fox was none-too-happy when their tent-pole script for X-Men Origins: Wolverine hit the internet a month before its release. While largely incomplete, it was enough to rile up the online fan base to the point where many thought the movie was going to be absolutely terrible.
While the film didn't score very good reviews with critics or audiences, it was no solace for leaker Gilberto Sanchez, who got a one-way trip to the clink.
3 Scream 2
In many ways, the Scream 2 script leak might be the granddaddy of them all. After all, the year was 1996 and most people still hadn't even heard of the internet, much less had a dial-up account set up. The early 'net days proved to be fertile ground for what would later become Hollywood's big leaking problem.
Production was already underway when the script was leaked online, and even in those early days it spread fast. The original ending featured featured four killers, which gave Wes Craven the opportunity to subvert expectations by narrowing it down to just two.
2 Deadpool
The Deadpool script leak is one of the few that contained a silver lining. After the script was leaked by a screenwriter, Fox went into full lawsuit mode, but while that was happening, fan appreciation for the script went through the roof.
In the end, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick shrugged the entire thing off and concluded that they must have done something right. The movie went ahead based on fan enthusiasm for a script leak disaster, which, quite frankly, is about as Deadpool as you can possibly get!
1 Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
By now, everyone has been forced to admit that The Rise Of Skywalker was a disastrous showing for the Star Wars franchise, grossing the least of any film in the main series, while getting panned by critics and fans, alike. The film reportedly dealt with reshoots just weeks leading up to theatrical release, which led to it being plagued by incoherent storytelling and nonsensical plot elements. Details about the script were leaked online in the weeks leading up to release, and although they were passed off as nonsense at the time, they were soon confirmed (tragically) to be accurate.
What's even more disappointing however, is the leaked alternate script of the film that was to be directed by Colin Trevorrow. If true, it would mean that audiences would have received a marginally better film than the one eventually released by Disney, which would have jettisoned the Palpatine Return arc completely. That alone might have been worth the price of admission.
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May 06, 2020 at 05:30AM
