On Friday, we had a good laugh about Fox News’ Roger Friedman’s rave review of the leaked version of 20th Century Fox’s Wolverine (“It’s miles easier to understand than The Dark Knight, and tremendously more emotional”), especially its hilarious endorsement of movie piracy: “It’s so much easier than going out in the rain!” Anyway, his column was removed on Friday afternoon (you can still read it here), and now he’s either fired or pretty close to it.
It seems to us that, more than “promoting piracy,” Friedman was facetiously pointing out the terrifying ease with which practically all new movies can be downloaded these days — even Roger Friedman can do it! And as studios concoct new ways to make the film-going experience more annoying and expensive, the fact that piracy is increasingly becoming relatively convenient and hassle-free probably poses a much more dangerous threat to Fox than people on the Internet writing about the contents of the year’s biggest leak. Also, did any of the hundreds of thousands of people who’ve downloaded Wolverine so far really do so because they thought Roger Friedman was condoning it? (That said, we totally understand why his bosses might be upset here.)
It seems to us that, more than “promoting piracy,” Friedman was facetiously pointing out the terrifying ease with which practically all new movies can be downloaded these days — even Roger Friedman can do it! And as studios concoct new ways to make the film-going experience more annoying and expensive, the fact that piracy is increasingly becoming relatively convenient and hassle-free probably poses a much more dangerous threat to Fox than people on the Internet writing about the contents of the year’s biggest leak. Also, did any of the hundreds of thousands of people who’ve downloaded Wolverine so far really do so because they thought Roger Friedman was condoning it? (That said, we totally understand why his bosses might be upset here.)
Anyway, Friedman himself has been unavailable for comment, though he did e-mail Nikki Finke on Saturday night, but just to say he was out at a Paul McCartney concert. We can only hope he had the good sense not to bootleg it.
Fox fired up over ‘Wolverine’ review [Variety]
EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Fires Showbiz Columnist For “Promoting” Piracy [DHD]
Pirated Wolverine Review Puts Fox Newser’s Job on the Line [Gawker]
Earlier: Eight Reasons Not to Download Wolverine
