Beaks here...

Fox has issued the following press release in response to Roger Friedman's idiotic review of the leaked WOLVERINE workprint.

We've just been made aware that Roger Friedman, a freelance columnist who writes Fox 411 on Foxnews.com - an entirely separate company from 20th Century Fox - watched on the internet and reviewed a stolen and unfinished version of X-Men Orgins: Wolverine. This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically - whether the review is good or bad.

Friedman's review has been removed from Foxnews.com - which is heartening, but I agree with Moriarty that this is not enough. Friedman has admitted to breaking the law. If 20th Century Fox - and the FBI - are serious about nailing the perpetrator(s) of this leak, then Friedman must be fired immediately for downloading and reviewing stolen material. There's no wiggle room here. Allowing Friedman to keep his job sends a message that certain Fox employees - i.e. those who generate decent web traffic - are above the law in this matter. This is unacceptable. And I trust that Fox - which has thus far behaved intelligently in response to this leak - will do the right thing.

Hey folks, Harry here... Wow - didn't see this one coming! Moriarty just rang me up spitting and pissing mad about this scenario. You see, the very real and transparent shill, Roger Friedman of FOX NEWS, has written a piece where he talks about downloading and watching a 95% finished WOLVERINE - which apparently nobody else in the world has seen. Ahem. He goes on to declare, "It’s miles easier to understand than "The Dark Knight," and tremendously more emotional." and "I am, in fact, amazed about how great "Wolverine" turned out. It exceeds expectations at every turn." and even goes so far as to say he was going to download and catch up with Paramount's "I LOVE YOU, MAN" next because it was so much easier than going out in the rain.

Now - What's interesting about all of this is that FOX has a very rigid history on pursuing employees that brazenly break the rules. Like when they went after Memflix for reviewing one of their films on AICN - and got him fired. How is this situation any different FOX?

I mean, if FOX doesn't go after Roger Friedman - aren't they basically telling the entire world... It's ok?

I understand that this is damage control - the overwhelming word of mouth from this print is wretched. I've heard from fans that what they do to Ryan Reynolds' DEADPOOL is so abhorrent, that they wanted to know exactly who was responsible so they could KILL them. It was a jocular bit of hyperbole, I assure you - but the emotion was solid and real. They were pissed. I've seen fans declare, "Worse than X3" and I've seen them say, "Slightly better than X3".

Fox needed Positive word of mouth.

Now - I've been talking to John Palermo, one of the producers on the film - ever since this story broke. The word I've gotten is that the print you can see online is several months old - and is in fact the version of the film that drove FOX to spend untold millions on a couple of weeks of additional shoots. That things have been edited out and that even with that - the film now runs 20 minutes longer than that which you see online. That there was stuff they didn't like and they took aggressive and costly steps to correct that.

If they wanted Roger to write a piece to fluff up WOLVERINE - why not show him the real version of the film?

Part of the reason that I decided not to run reviews on AICN of WOLVERINE based on the work print was the knowledge that this is a 3-4 month old print - that had 2-3 weeks of reshoots and millions of work put into it to make it better, because they were not happy with that version. The only point in seeing that workprint is as a comparison to the finished version, to see the process in which the Producers and Director and Studio went through to try and make WOLVERINE as good as it could be.

It's also why I don't run script reviews after the test screening process, what's the point? Beyond the moral issues - it is old information. Script reviews when the script breaks prior to or during filming? Fair game. Test Screenings provide information on the state of the film in question - the day & night in which they screened it. But what is online is a snapshot from months ago of a film with reportedly dire issues, which they allegedly took fairly intense steps to correct.

And I did the right thing of discussing this with the producers and that is the proper way to follow up this kind of story.

But having Fox shill Roger Friedman tell everyone about this great new way to see movies for free at your home - and how all 10 of the top Box Office films right now can be seen comfortably and happily in your home, well that's criminally irresponsible and if I were FOX - Roger Friedman would be joining millions of Americans that have lost their jobs - only this time - it would be deservedly lost.

SO - what do you think of Roger Friedman's piece? WOLVERINE? FOX's policy?