Posted in: Movies, Paramount+, TV | Tagged: avatar, Avatar The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender Team Calls Out Hack/Leak & More (UPDATE)

As those who helped bring Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender speak out against the hack/leak, some new updates/details went live on Thursday.

As the controversy surrounding the hack/leak of Paramount+'s Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender continues to grow, there are still a whole ton of unanswered questions. Over this past weekend, an individual took to social media, claiming that the entire film was "accidentally" emailed to them. Along with releasing clips from the film (totaling more than 3 minutes of alleged footage), the individual threatened to livestream the entire film if Paramount didn't release a trailer or some kind of preview sooner rather than later. Over the past week, we've been hearing from a number of folks who worked on the film on social media who made it clear that hacking/leaking Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender does nothing to help the film or the animators. But before we jump into that, The Hollywood Reporter ran an update on where things stand, with one or two highlights worth noting:

Clips Leaker, Film Leaker Not the Same Person? The THR piece claims that the film was leaked in its entirety by "someone in Singapore," not by the individual who posted clips and threatened to leak the complete film. The individual claims they had no intention of leaking the film, "not necessarily out of respect to Paramount," but rather because it would've been a "jackass thing to do to the animators."

Paramount Reportedly Clears Itself: Sources speaking with THR for its report claim Paramount is conducting an ongoing investigation into what went down, with the hack/leak the result of "a vulnerability in its systems" having been ruled out.

"We worked on the aang movie for years with the expectation that'd we'd get to celebrate all of our hard work in theaters, just to see people unceremoniously leak the film and pass our shots around on Twitter like candy," animator Julia Schoel (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Helluva Boss) posted on social media, the first of a three-part response. I don't like seeing people use Paramount's awful decision to remove the movie from theaters to justify leaking it. I totally understand folks not wanting to pay for/support Paramount+, but pirating the movie after its release would have at least been better than this. This is incredibly disrespectful to all of the hard work the artists put in."

In response to a follow-up question, Schoel explained that there are significant differences between hacking/leaking and pirating. "Leaking a movie before release undermines the entire effort at its most vulnerable moment. No marketing buildup, premieres, etc, which harms the film's reputation and affects future opportunities for the artists who worked on it," Schoel wrote. "Pirating, on the other hand, happens after the film has already had the chance to reach audiences through official channels, and does not harm its reputation." Here's a look at Schoel's opening reaction to the controversy, followed by reactions from a number of other individuals who were directly involved in bringing the project to life:

Paramount+'s The Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender stars Dave Bautista, Eric Nam, Jessica Matten, Dionne Quan, Román Zaragoza, Steven Yeun, Taika Waititi, Geraldine Viswanathan, Dee Bradley Baker, Peta Sergeant, Freida Pinto, and Ke Huy Quan.

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