Rising Sun Denies Leaking Wolverine Online

Australian vfx company Rising Sun Pictures say they had nothing to do with X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE leaking online earlier this week. The ASSOCIATED PRESS reported Thursday that the company's name appears in a caption dated March 2 a few minutes into the leaked copy of the Twentieth Century Fox film.

RSP Chairman and co-founder Tony Clark said in a statement posted to the company website, "From the reports we've had, the stolen material is a work in progress version of the film with many incomplete sections. As we worked on individual sequences within the film, 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.

"It's common practice for work in progress between us and the production to carry vendor watermarks and for these works in progress to be integrated into various edits of the film for screenings which would explain why our name appears."

Rising Sun did extensive work on last winter's AUSTRALIA for Fox, as well as upcoming work on TERMINATOR SALVATION and HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE.

WOLVERINE is set to hit theaters on May 1, but leaked version appeared online Tuesday night, reportedly full-length but missing final sound and vfx. Fox removed the original file online Wednesday, but copies continue to appear on file-sharing websites. Fox said the FBI is investigating who is responsible for the breach.

The studio said in a statement, "The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law; the courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts in the past."

CNN reports that The Motion Picture Association of America is also helping out with the investigation.