Samuel L Jackson reveals his watermarked script for The Avengers was STOLEN and sold online – forcing Marvel execs to set up fake purchase to get it back
- A copy of Samuel L Jackson’s script was printed by an employee of the production office in Canada while the film was being shot before being listed online
- It forced movie executives to set up a mock buy to prevent the screenplay from getting into the public’s hands, but the person didn’t show up at the meeting
- Jackson said the employee was identified and he quit before leaving the country. Marvel has since stepped up its security to prevent a recurrence
Samuel L Jackson has revealed that his watermarked script for The Avengers was stolen and sold online from the Marvel Studios production office.
A copy of it was printed by an associate while the film was being shot in Canada before being released for sale.
It forced movie executives to set up a mock buy to prevent the screenplay from getting into the public’s hands.
Jackson said the employee who printed a copy of the script was identified and he quit before leaving the country, but the person trying to sell it online didn’t show up at the meeting.
The Pulp Fiction star added that Marvel has since stepped up its security to prevent a recurrence.
Samuel L Jackson has revealed his watermarked script for The Avengers was stolen and sold online from Marvel Studios’ production office
A copy of it was printed by an associate while the film was being shot in Canada before being released for sale
Jackson spoke out about his stolen script for The Avengers, which was released in May 2012, in a new interview with Weekly entertainment.
The actor, who plays Nick Fury in the movie franchise, flew to Canada to film the project before an employee made a copy of his script at the Marvel Studios production office.
It was quickly put up for sale online and an investigation was launched to find the culprit.
“I remember when we were getting ready to do ‘Avengers’ someone printed out a copy of my ‘Avengers’ script with my watermark on it and put it up for sale online,” he said.
“I was shooting in Canada and Marvel came to Canada.
“It was printed in the production office… They found out who it was, dude quit, left the country. They set up a bogus buy for the script, dude didn’t show up. It was crazy.
“I had no idea printers had memories in those days.”
Jackson added that Marvel has increased security protocols as people try to access scripts and storylines.
He pointed to the example of drones flying over sets to catch glimpses of upcoming films by capturing stills and videos.
But Marvel is now shooting them. “They shot one,” Jackson said. And they followed one back to where the dude was. They found him and, yes, they have him.’
Jackson said the employee who printed a copy of the script was identified and quit before leaving the country, but the person who tried to sell it online did not show up at the meeting
The Pulp Fiction star added that Marvel has stepped up its security since the incident on The Avengers movie set to prevent a recurrence
Emilia Clarke, his co-star in Secret Invasion, also spoke about fans going to lengths for spoilers after her time on HBO’s Game of Thrones.
She went out of her way to avoid the same situation on the Marvel production and removed the SIM card from her cell phone after being told that fans can figure things out from basic photos.
“When we were doing Game of Thrones, when it started to get into the later seasons, some huge security changes happened,” Clarke added.
“I was chatting with [showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] and they were like, “Marvel. We just learn from Marvel. Whatever Marvel does, we just want to do that.”‘
“So that became, you don’t print anything – and then there was something like me and Peter Dinklage saying, ‘I need it on paper! I can’t learn my lines without it on paper!'”
Clarke said it hurt when things got screwed up on Game of Thrones and people used to send drones on set to collect information.
“When I hear the goddamn sound of a drone, I’m scared to death,” she said.