'Wolverine' update (TW, CB)

By Nancy Tartaglione

The source of the "Wolverine" copy that was leaked earlier this week has been narrowed down to a digital working print that was about a month old, a Fox executive has told TheWrap.com. With the FBI, Fox's own investigators and the MPAA hot on the trail, about half a dozen leads are being followed, reports TW. Meanwhile, could an "Avatar" come to the rescue?

A Fox executive close to the investigation told TW the studio did not yet know exactly how many outside vendors had access to the film. "There's the reproduction house sending it to the trailer company or the marketing department, there's the director, his assistant. Unfortunately there are multiple ways it could get there (to the Internet)," the person said.

In a statement on Thursday, Fox said the print was unfinished, missing special effects and some scenes, and had a temporary score, and that some scenes were entirely unedited.

At least one third-party vendor has spoken up to say that it never had access to a complete print. Effects house Rising Sun Pictures posted a statement to its Website earlier this week saying, "Neither RSP or its staff members have ever been in possession of a full-length version, so it would have been impossible for the movie to have been leaked from here."

The reaction amongst the so-called fanboy sites has been appropriately anti-leak. From Aintitcool.com to IESB.com to Moviehole.net, folks have come out against the pirates with Aint It Cool proclaiming, "We Don't Want Your WOLVERINE Reviews!!!"

Meanwhile, Cinema Blend has a suggestion for Fox: "If Fox can somehow pull together a trailer for 'Avatar' and play it before 'Wolverine,' they can recover from the enormous blow of the 'Wolverine' piracy."

The idea being that perhaps no other film this year is shrouded in as much secrecy as James Cameron's 3-D opus. With reports that the first glimpses of the movie will not be seen until ComiCon in July, "it's hard to imagine any other trailer audiences would pay $12 to see," opines CB.

"Wolverine" is scheduled for release on May 1, and has been removed from the file-sharing websites, notes TW.