'Fury' is close to becoming the most illegally downloaded movie of the year after the Sony leak.
Five Sony movies, three of which the studio had hoped would compete at the Oscars next year, have leaked after a hack on the studio's servers. DVD screeners of four unreleased movies including the upcoming remake of Annie, drama Still Alice and Mike Leigh's Mr Turner are now available on file-sharing hubs after showing up on November 27.
Brad Pitt plays Wardaddy in the freshly leaked World War II movie Fury
Another leaked movie, the Brad Pitt starrer Fury has been downloaded by over 888,000 unique IP addresses since appearing online.
"The theft of Sony Pictures Entertainment content is a criminal matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement to address it," a Sony spokeswoman said in a statement to Variety.
More: Brad Pitt's Oscar-tipped Fury closes London Film Festival
The hack is said to have occurred on November 24, in which a team calling themselves GOP (Guardians of Peace) compromised Sony's corporate systems. Sources say a connection to North Korea is being investigated, given the country's condemnation of Sony's upcoming comedy The Interview about an assassination attempt on Kim Jong Il.
Timothy Spall takes the lead in Mr Turner
The leak comes just months after the Lionsgate movie Expendables 3 was leaked online three weeks before its theatrical release. Police arrested two men in London in connection with the stolen file.
More: check out our full review of Fury
Annie, a remake of the classic musical movie stars Quvenzhané Wallis as the happy-go-lucky foster kid, with Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx in supporting roles. The big-budget project is produced by Will Smith, Jay-Z amongst others. Though Fury is close to becoming the most illegally downloaded movie of the year, Annie is yet to break the 100,000 mark.
"[Sony] is hopeful Annie won't be pirated as much because family films aren't subject to as much illegal downloading as titles that skew more toward young males."
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