Heads Roll Over Wolverine

An incomplete pirated version hit the Net last Tuesday and already it's being sold on every other corner in Los Angeles

Already heads are rolling (and I'm not talking about in the movie).... Fox vowed Wednesday that the source of the "stolen, incomplete and early version" of the movie would be prosecuted and said the FBI and MPAA are investigating the leak.

FoxNews.com entertainment writer, Roger Friedman was fired for writing a column that seemed to endorse watching pirated DVD's. According to Finke, Friedman wrote he had watched the upcoming movie by downloading it illegally, adding, "It's so much easier than going out in the rain!" Although Friedman told ABC News "there was no action taken against me," Finke writes action was taken immediately - from the top:

I'm told that Fox News' actions were swift and severe. First, Roger Ailes, who overseas Fox News, deleted the offending post after he was contacted by 20th Century Fox about it. And then Ailes fired Friedman as a freelance Fox News entertainment writer.

I hear the move was done with the full support of News Corp. "He promoted piracy. He basically suggested that viewing a stolen film is OK, which is absolutely intolerable. So we fired him," a source told me Saturday. "Fox News acted promptly on all fronts

The source of the leak seems to be narrowing down to an Australian visual effects company. The company's name - Rising Sun Pictures - appears in a caption dated March 2 a few minutes into the high-quality leaked copy of the 20th Century Fox superhero movie. Naturally, they deny being the source and clam their security procedures makes it impossible for any employees to have attained a full-length copy of the movie.

The "prequel, which focuses on the beginnings of Hugh Jackman's clawed Marvel superhero Wolverine, is not scheduled for release until May 1, but the leaked version began appearing online Tuesday evening. Fox said in a statement Wednesday that it had the original file removed, but copies quickly propagated and continue to appear on several file-sharing Web sites.

I watched the movie this weekend and many of the special effects, had missing and unedited scenes....especially in the ending fight scene, when Wolverine and his nemesis utterly destroyed a nuclear power plant. Regardless of the attached strings, harnesses, models, and green screens....Wolverine was a good movie experience.

The rousing cheer in my house, at the end only endorsed the creativity and artistry of the filmmakers. And X-Man fan will love this movie....I strongly recommend that you see it in a movie setting. Who knows, maybe 20^th Century Fox, will change the ending or add a new soundtrack to capitalize on the buzz this early release has caused.