Vampires vs Pirates

According to Torrent Freak, Vampires Suck has been downloaded more than 100,000 times since it was leaked.

An unfinished copy of Vampires Suck, Fox’s highly anticipated parody of Twilight was scheduled to hit US theatres Wednesday, but was leaked more than a month ago. According to Torrent Freak it has been downloaded more than 100,000 times since then.

Two years ago, Fox was bitten when a rough copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine leaked online a month before hitting theatres. Reports suggested that more than one million people viewed at least part of the work print. The incident garnered national attention, a rebuke from Fox’s upper management, and eventually, a belated arrest. Despite the hubbub, it was never revealed exactly how the unfinished film ended up online (it also wasn’t clear how the piracy influenced box office sales).

Now faced with another major leak, Fox’s legal department has quietly become more aggressive, sending takedown requests to torrent sites and Google. They likely want to avoid the fate of the 2004 parody film Soul Plane, which prompted an FBI investigation after pirated copies flooded the black market weeks before its release.

Soul Plane was cited as one of the first Hollywood films to be impacted by digital piracy. Will pirates suck the life out of Vampires Suck? Fox is publicly downplaying down the leak, saying the incident occurred a month ago and there isn’t anything new to report.

However, Vampires Suck has been making rounds internationally as well and is available in Pakistan on DVD. Karachi based store, Home Video has the parody available in good print on dvd and have had it for a while. “We got the film about two weeks ago on master print,” said the salesman.

When asked how he managed to get a dvd which has not been officially released he said, “Sometimes these things happen, and we get a film before it has formally been released. It has been selling well; we’ve had a lot of customers asking for the film.”

Vampires are exceedingly popular in Pakistan with books, music and films all selling well in the country. “Vampire books are very popular amongst teenagers and we have seen a definite increase in their popularity after Twilight has become an international trend. Other popular vampire series include Night World and The Vampire Diaries,” said the manager of Liberty Books at Park Towers.

When The Twilight Saga: Eclipse released in Karachi, the Universe Cineplex was flocked by teenagers wanting to see the first show of Eclipse. Kaiser Rafiq, the director of operations told The Express Tribune, “All the weekend shows of Eclipse are mostly sold out. There is definitely a bigger demand for Eclipse (than for any other Twilight film). It is on for at least eight weeks.”

WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2010.