THE AVENGERS Probably Not Delayed

Reports are spreading online that production on The Avengers has been halted after a copy of the script leaked online. I’ve talked to a couple of sources and neither of them can confirm this and believe that the production is trundling along just fine. That could change, I suppose, but the reality is that the cost of stopping a movie like this over a script leak is so prohibitive it seems unlikely. I’m still waiting for official word from Disney. UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Disney and this was the first the publicist had heard about it.

Also, the leaked script gives almost nothing away. The Avengers is a movie that most of you could probably plot out beat for beat; Marvel isn’t throwing a bunch of surprises at us in this one (at least not until the end, but there’s a surprise at the end that I don’t think can be rewritten due to Marvel’s long-term planning).

A few years ago a massive trove of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull photos and materials were offered for sale to Peter Sciretta of Slashfilm. He did the right thing and immediately contacted the studio and the authorities. Unfortunately these days the people who run sites like Obsessed With Film and Geek Tyrant seem to have no discernable morality and opted to run stories about the offered script rather than try to help the authorities nail people selling stolen goods. That’s not journalistic ethics, it’s basic civic morality.

Thanks to Ben M.