The Hateful Eight leak linked back to leading Hollywood executive

The Hateful Eight is not the only unreleased film to leak in recent days.

“I’ve never seen this DVD”, Kosove, the producer of “The Blind Side” and the upcoming “Point Break” remake, told the industry trade. The film, which was supposed to be released on Christmas Day, was instead made available to pirate sites and peer-to-peer file sharing. “We’re going to conduct our own investigation to find out what happened”.

The leaked video file was traced back to the offices of Alcon Entertainment in Century City, California (a Los Angeles area development formerly part of 20th Century Fox’s backlot).

Kosove was sent a copy of a “screener” for awards consideration, but the delivery was signed for by an office assistant.

The movie was posted online by a group identifying itself as Hive-CM8. One piracy group named “Hive-CM8” is taking credit for the leaks, claiming the aforementioned titles are only two of a total of 40 they will leak, according to TorrentFreak, a news site covering online piracy and filesharing. However, The Hateful Eight is the very first time Jackson is the lead character and the top billed actor for Tarantino, as he plays a Civil War Major turned bounty hunter entrapped with seven other shady figures in a cabin – and has to figure out which one of them is plotting to free prisoner Jennifer Jason Leigh. We may now know the source of that leak. (Films that popped up online were traced back to Caridi’s screeners.) Later, an IL man was arrested for allegedly duping Caridi into turning over his screeners; the man eventually pleaded guilty to copyright infringement. That film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, opens in limited release Friday and expands nationwide January 8. Hateful Eight distributor The Weinstein Co.is also working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine what happened.

The Hateful Eight will go ahead with its planned release on Christmas Day.