Samuel L Jackson reveals his watermarked script for The Avengers was STOLEN and sold online – forcing Marvel execs to set up a fake buy to get it back
- A copy of Samuel L Jackson’s script was printed by an employee in the Canada production office while the film was being shot before it was listed online
- It forced film executives to set up a fake buy to stop the screenplay from getting into the hands of the public but the person did not show up the meet
- Jackson said the employee was identified and he quit before leaving the country. Marvel has since stepped up its security to avoid a repeat
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 a staff member while the film was being shot in Canada before it was put up for sale.
It forced film executives to set up a fake buy to stop the screenplay from getting into the hands of the public.
Jackson said the employee who printed a copy of the script was identified and he quit before leaving the country but the person who tried to sell it online did not show up to the meet.
The Pulp Fiction star added that Marvel has since stepped up its security to avoid a repeat.
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 a staff member while the film was being shot in Canada before it was put up for sale
Jackson spoke out about his stolen script for The Avengers, which was released in May 2012, in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
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 in 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 got ready to do ‘Avengers,’ someone printed out a copy of my ‘Avengers’ script that had my watermark on it, and put it online for sale,’ he said.
‘I was shooting in Canada and Marvel came to Canada.
‘It had been printed in the production office… They found out who it was, dude quit, left the country. They set up a fake buy for the script, dude didn’t show up. It was crazy.
‘I had no idea printers had memories at that time.’
Jackson added that Marvel has increased security protocols as people try and get access to scripts and storylines.
He pointed to the example of drones which fly over sets to get a glimpse of upcoming films by capturing photos and footage.
But Marvel now shoot them down. ‘They shot one down,’ Jackson said. ‘And they followed one back to where the dude was. They found him and, yeah, they got him.’
Jackson said the employee who printed a copy of the script was identified and he quit before leaving the country but the person who tried to sell it online did not show up to the meet
The Pulp Fiction star added that Marvel has stepped up its security since the incident on the film set of The Avengers to avoid a repeat
Emilia Clarke, his co-star in Secret Invasion, also spoke out about the lengths fans go to for spoilers following her time on HBO’s Game of Thrones.
She went to great lengths to avoid the same situation on the Marvel Production and removed the SIM card from her cell phone after she was told fans can figure stuff out from basic pictures.
‘When we were doing Game of Thrones, when it started to get to the later seasons, some massive security changes happened,’ Clarke added.
‘I was chatting with [showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] and they were like, “Marvel. We’re just learning from Marvel. Whatever Marvel’s doing, we just want to do that.”‘
‘So that became, you don’t print anything — and then there was like me and Peter Dinklage being like, “I need it on paper! I can’t learn my lines without it being on paper!”‘
Clarke said it hurt when things got spoiled in Game of Thrones and people used to send drones on set to collect information.
‘If I hear the f****** noise of a drone, it scares the s*** out of me,’ she said.
