Five Other Script Leaks to Make Quentin Tarantino Feel Better

Film headlines have been awash this week with news of Quentin Tarantino’s seemingly canned project, Hateful Eight, due to a script leak. The mercurial director has been candid in his plans to scrap the movie, even naming names in the process.

And while QT’s reaction isn’t exactly surprising – he’s certainly been known to give his penny’s worth in the past – it’s not entirely warranted: plenty of film scripts have been leaked in the past and Hateful Eight won’t be the last. Here are five other examples of missing screenplays from years gone by:

Scream 2

The Internet heralded a new age for sharing information in what was arguably the biggest innovation in modern history. The freedom to share data with increasing speeds has been a hotly contested subject, not least for the governmental bodies and institutions that saw their secrets blown wide open.

But it’s not all political conspiracy and blonde-haired anti-heroes: the film business has faced its fair share of e-woes, too.

When Scream 2 was rushed into production, screenwriter Kevin Williamson was faced with the unenviable task of rewriting the script following a high profile leak. He ended up reworking the ending, changing the amount of killers from four down to two, even using the leak as red herring. The show went on, and, for better or worse, the franchise lives today.

The Fifth Estate

The Fifth Estate bombed with the critics - here's the gang reading their Rotten Tomatoes page

It would have been almost annoying if a film about a world-famous website involved in leaking thousands of classified files and documents didn’t incur a security breach of its own. And that’s exactly what happened. Bill Condon’s dramatization of Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Daniel Berg’s (Daniel Brühl) rise and fall within the Wikileaks website was victim to a leak.

Not only was the script leaked, but found its way into the hands of Assange, who subsequently denounced the film and everything it stood for. He called it “a mass propaganda attack against WikiLeaks, the organization (and) the character of my staff.” Of course, the film was still made, and while Cumberbatch’s performance as the controversial Wikileaks founder was praised, the film was received badly by the critics, accumulating a derisory score of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Breaking Bad (spoilers)

Jesse and Walt look for the guy who nicked the scripts

Cloaks, daggers and broken car windows surround this supposed leak. The most popular show of the last decade culminated with a thrilling final season towards the end of 2013, taking Walter White with it. A general rule of thumb for BB fans during its run was: if you hadn’t seen it on Sunday night, stay clear of all social media until you had. Spoilers were everywhere.

But this near-leak wasn’t anything to do with the Internet: a man decided to break into Bryan Cranston’s car and steal his iPad – which has two scripts from the hit AMC meth drama on it – and make haste. Cranston, reliant upon the trickery of some tech wizards, was able to delete the scripts remotely, meaning nothing from the show was leaked, and all was well. That didn’t stop people talking about it for months afterwards…

Next page: a modern flop and all-time classic are subject to leaks...