The hackers behind the high-profile leak have released a weird explanation which claims they actually helped give Tarantino publicity
Imagine the fury you’d feel having spent the last two years writing, tenderly crafting and then bringing a film to life, only for some low-life punks to share it online for free over Christmas before its release date. Who would spend a tenner to see a film at the cinema when you can sit at home and watch it for free in your pants?
Quentin Tarantino’s thoughts exactly. When his new movie The Hateful Eight was leaked in an extremely high-profile case over Christmas the director looked everywhere for someone to blame for the leak. You can understand his frustrations. While the film earned a solid $16.2 million in its first weekend of wide release, that isn’t much in comparison to his previous efforts. The Hateful Eight had been affected by a leak before. In 2014, its script was leaked online — prompting the director to cancel the film, before changing his mind.
Now, for whatever reason, the group who leaked the film, “HIVE-CM8” have released a weird, rambling statement explaining how they did it and why they’re sorry they did it.
Instead of a victorious fist-pumping boastful saga detailing how they hacked the studio’s account and stole the film, sharing it with millions across the globe, they just want to say they’re really, really sorry. In a long grammatically incorrect essay, the group admit they just got the copy of the film from some dude on the street selling bootlegged DVDs.
They go on to say that rather than lose any sales, their actions had in fact produced a brand “new type of media hype”. “Since everyone is now talking about [The Hateful Eight] we don’t think producers will loose any money at cinedate, and we tell you now why,” they wrote. “We actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news,radio and in the papers than starwars, [sic] and the promotional costs for this were free.” Interesting take although we’re not sure if Quentin Tarantino needs their special hype.
Most bizarrely of all, the statement then goes on to suck up to Tarantino hard, celebrating the film and his talents. “we also think that the hateful 8 movie is the top candidate for the awards and will win by a mile over others thx tarantino for this wonderful movie,” they wrote. It reads like the director had a gun to their head.
That still doesn’t answer the question: why? Why bother to apologise and praise him? Maybe they don’t want to get shutdown or prosecuted. Maybe they are Tarantino’s number one fans. Or maybe they really are remorseful and want to set an example for other wannabe hackers out there before they make a terrible mistake.
New year, new start and all that.
The full statement via Business Insider reads:
"We didnt plan to comment at all on recent events, but we feel now that we should.
Sorry to disappoint M but there was no hack or any such thing . We got the copies sold from a guy on the street, no decryption was needed. we were definately not the only ones. cpl other movies have been on the net days before, not done from us So we wanted to share this movies with the people who are not rich enough or not able to watch all nominated movies in the cinema.
Of course this files are not representing the movies how they can be enjoyed in the cinema
As said in our nfo, please support the producers and watch all movies in the cinema on a big screen, like you should do anyhow. The Producers need the money from ticket sales to get back the production costs.
As for Hateful Eight Movie:
We feel sorry for the trouble we caused by releasing that great movie before cinedate even has begun. we never intended to hurt anyone by doing that, we didnt know it would get that popular that quickly
The Hateful Eight is an excellent,thrilling and entertaining Western that combines terrific direction,a fantastic cast,a wonderful script,beautiful photography and a memorable score. All of those elements make The Hateful Eight an unforgettable film that is Quentin Tarantino at his best.
Since everyone is now talking about this movie we dont think the producers will loose any money at cinedate, and we tell you now why. we actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news,radio and in the papers than starwars, and the promotional costs for this were free
If lets say 5% of the people planned to watch this movie at cinemadate, due to this media push we unintenionally created, we believe that now 40% of the people will watch this movie in the cinema cause everyone is talking about it and everyone wants to see the movie that created so much noise. this will push the cinema tickets sale for sure.
we really hope this helped out the producers in the longrun, so that the production costs are covered and more
we also think that the hateful 8 movie is the top candidate for the awards and will win by a mile over others thx tarantino for this wonderful movie
sorry it was around christmas we didnt plan that at all either, we wont do another movie before its cinedate, and we def wont go up to 40 as planned, we think we have done enough already.
cheers"
