Sony’s hacking woes continue: Over the holiday weekend a number of the studio’s watermarked awards DVD screeners leaked online, including WWII actioner Fury and the upcoming Annie, Still Alice, and Mr. Turner – just days after an online attack crippled the company’s computers. A fifth film, the March 2015 release To Write Love On Her Arms, also surfaced on file-sharing platforms over the Thanksgiving break as Sony emails remained incapacitated across the studio.
Musical remake Annie is the biggest unreleased title in the leak; due in theaters worldwide next month, it opens wide in the U.S. on December 19. Still Alice, the Alzheimer’s drama that’s propelling Julianne Moore into the Oscar race, hits limited screens on December 5. Mike Leigh’s period biopic Mr. Turner is set for a December 19 limited bow.
Unsurprisingly, David Ayer’s Brad Pitt starrer Fury, which opened in October and is still in theaters, is the most popular illegal download of the bunch. It shot to #2 among downloaded films since appearing online on Thursday.
Sony was attacked on Monday by hackers calling themselves the Guardians of Peace who froze computer screens across the company with the message “Hacked by #GOP” and a ticking clock to meet the infiltrators’ demands before sensitive data was released to the world. “The theft of Sony Pictures Entertainment content is a criminal matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement to address it,” said an SPE spokesperson Saturday evening.
While the studio investigates the source of the attack, wild speculation has even veered to hackers upset over the Christmas release of Sony comedy The Interview, in which James Franco and Seth Rogen try to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The basis for those reports was one unsubstantiated online report that has not been corroborated but picked up as factual. The truth is, the studio can’t yet rule it out because it doesn’t know where the breach came from. For what it’s worth, that film has not leaked online – yet.
Jen Yamato
