Fox News Fires Roger Friedman for Downloading 'Wolverine,' "Promoting Piracy"

Last week, an unfinished version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine made its way online, and was immediately the subject of a lot of speculation - who could have come into possession of this work print and uploaded it, can Fox track down the pirate, and what effect will its availability have on the box office of the film? Fox and the FBI believe they can track down the source of the file, and it's doubtful the illegal copy will take too much money out of the studio's coffers because it wasn't a complete version of the film. But the weirdest angle on all of this has to be the boneheaded decision by Fox News columnist Roger Friedman to download the film, watch it, and then review it online. That's the last time that's going to happen, at least at Fox. The studio wasted no time putting the pressure on the TV division within News Corp, and as a result, Friedman has been fired, according to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily. He was a fairly unpopular guy in a lot of circles, so there won't be millions of people sorry to see him go, but the decision to drop him from the roster so swiftly indicates just how seriously Fox takes the illegal digital distribution of its property. "He promoted piracy. He basically suggested that viewing a stolen film is OK, which is absolutely intolerable. So we fired him," a source told Finke. And because there is no gray area on whether or not Friedman acted at best unethically, I don't see that he has any recourse in this instance. As for tracking down the leak, the Australian visual effects house Rising Sun Pictures was thought to be a possible source, since the company's watermark appears in the film, but both that company and Fox confirm that Rising Sun never received the work print. Torrent Freak estimates that the pirated film was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times in its first 24 hours online.

Comments

[Tim J]

THANK YOU FOX. you did the right thing. now we all can stop being distracted by anything but the movie and it's release. which is what i've wanted to do for a long time.

[Well done, Fox...]

That was the right move we should expect. Fox avoided hypocrisy and fired that idiot. As for piracy, it SUCKS. People who say they are fans of cinema don't download illegally movies, especially when they are incomplete as it is the case with Wolverine. Instead they go and watch them in theaters. Personally, I'll go and watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine in theaters the first day it comes out, because I love the character and Hugh Jackman seems to really love and care about this project, unlike other actors who just make that kind of movies to make crazy money... Jackman is so devoted to Wolverine/ X-men films and he completely makes me -at least- believe so.

[orinn]

How did the news columnist think it would go down any other way?

[Green Fox]

I've been hoping that Roger Friedman would get fired for years. Although, I am surprised it is over something so stupid, but what can you do? This is the same guy who put Valkyrie on his worst movies of 2008 list before he ever saw it. He was a hack, and I personally hope he never works in the media again.