HACKERS ATTEMPT TO BLACKMAIL DISNEY
LOS ANGELES: Disney chief Bob Iger said on Monday hackers claiming to have access to one of the company’s unreleased movies were demanding a “huge” ransom.
He did not reveal which film had been stolen but said the company would not give in to the blackmail attempt, according to The Hollywood Reporter, quoting Iger from a meeting in New York with employees of the Disney-owned ABC television network.
The weekly reported on its website — citing multiple unnamed sources — that Disney was working with federal agents and monitoring for leaks online.
Movie website Deadline identified Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which opens on May 26, as the target, without revealing its sources, while some film writers speculated on Twitter that Pixar’s Cars 3, due for release next month, might have been hit.
Although both films are expected to do well for Disney, their profits are likely to be dwarfed by another film on the company’s slate, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which hits theatres on Dec 15.
“IMO, if it were Last Jedi, he would pay in a heartbeat. But Pirates... meh,” Ryan Parker, a staff writer on the Hollywood Reporter, speculated on Twitter.
The cyber-thieves demanded to be paid in online currency Bitcoin and are threatening to release five minutes of the movie, followed by 20-minute segments until the ransom is delivered.
The hack follows a recent cyber attack on internet streamer Netflix that led to 10 episodes of Orange is the New Black being leaked ahead of release.
Dead Men Tell No Tales is the fifth in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, which stars Johnny Depp and has taken US$3.7 billion (RM15.9 billion) at the box office since 2003.
Sci-fi novelist Paul Tassi, who comments on technology and the internet for Forbes Magazine, said Pirates would be unlikely to suffer were it the target, since its release date is so near.
“Yes, going to a movie in theatres is one of the more exhausting media experiences still left in society, but the kinds of people who are willing to pay money to see Depp stumble his way through a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie in theatres are probably not the type to download a stolen copy of it right before it comes out,” he said.
“And like all movies, Pirates would appear on torrent sites regardless practically the day of its release, so the hackers seem to be really overestimating their impact here.”
The Walt Disney Company didn’t respond to requests for comment. AFP