In the end, however, this ungoverned and unmoderated publication of content became the undoing of these and similar networks, with malware, viruses and badly (even maliciously) labeled files taking over.

With the advent of BitTorrent with its reliance on managed indexes, publication of content became significantly less accessible. That cut down hugely on junk but also much of the desirable oddball content too. However, torrents ate big files for breakfast and heralded something new and exciting – leaks of movie content never intended for public consumption plus exclusive fan-modified versions.

Also noteworthy with BitTorrent is longevity of content availability. With both in mind we took a browse around to see what unusual movie content is still being seeded today.

Fight Club – Workprint – 1998/1999

According to the iMDb, Fight Club is one of the world’s most-loved movies with countless millions having seen it to date. However, lurking away on file-sharing networks is a special version of the movie sporting hundreds of changes from the final version including 13 reported cuts for violence.

Showing that something as important as the intro isn’t always set in stone, this video claims to depict an earlier intro to the movie accompanied by “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters instead of “Stealing Fat” from the Dust Brothers.

Curiosity value: At least 127 documented differences compared with the original.

Halloween – Workprint – 2007

As the world waited for the return of Michael Myers in the 2007 remake of Halloween, scene release group mVs (Maven Supplier) had a surprise in store. On August 27, 2007, three days before its official release, mVs released an unfinished version of the movie online.

Curiosity value: Missing final edits, some scenes added, and general polish. Full extensive details are available here.

Alien “Virtual Workprint” – 1979

From release notes: A fan-edit of the film ALIEN which interpolates all existing deleted scenes and a variety of unseen footage and unused score cues to create a version that runs considerably longer than both the 1979 theatrical release and the 2003 director’s cut.

Curiosity value: Runtime of 139 mins (117 mins original, 116 mins director’s cut)

Apocalypse Now – Workprint – 1979

According to the information posted along with the release, this is the best workprint copy of the movie outside “Mr Coppola’s archives” although as the screenshots show, quality is stuck in the VHS era.

“I was given this on VHS many years ago. It was from a higher up source on the food chain and quite possibly one or two generations down from the source that leaked it to begin with,” a note with the release reads.

“The workprint ended right during the cow slicing. I then tacked on the finished
film ended but before the credits I also added the Kurtz compound destruction.
Now you have a super edition of the film running 30 mins short of 6 hours!!

Curiosity value: Unfinished, yet still 5.5 hours long. (original 153 mins)

The Mask – Workprint – 1994

This Jim Carey classic was nominated for a special effects Oscar in 1995, but people who stumbled across an unfinished version of the movie were seriously but interestingly short-changed in that department. This workprint copy is missing many special effects and in some of the more dramatic morphing scenes everything is replaced by hand drawn story boards.

Curiosity value: A full 20 mins longer than the DVD with unfinished scenes, scenes not present in the final version, additional dialogue and Jim Carrey acting scenes before CGI is added in.

Dune The Reconstructed Workprint Edition – 1984

From release notes: This edit attempts to reconstruct David Lynch’s workprint better than the official Extended Edition. It removes most (if not all) of the offensive elements that led Lynch to remove his name from the Extended Edition.

Erroneous FX shots are eliminated, and as much of the Theatrical Edition as possible is used for the sake of better sound and score. It also restores most of the
deleted scenes that were not present in the Extended Edition but finally showed
up as a supplement on the DVD.

Curiosity value: 41 mins longer than the official 137 min runtime.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Workprint – 1993

From release notes: The film was half-complete at this point. You’ll see a lot of finished scenes, including a few that don’t appear in the final movie, but you’ll also see scenes which are only storyboard drawings.

There is a lot of temporary audio and music. Oogie Boogie’s scenes, for example, aren’t ready yet – they’re storyboards, with temporary audio on his song, which is a longer version probably sung by Danny Elfman. “Making Christmas” is also just storyboards with an extra verse.

The final confrontation between Jack and Oogie (and pretty much the entire ending) is also just storyboards, and a bit vague compared to the final film.

Curiosity value: Seriously unfinished

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – 4.5 Hour Workprint

From release notes: This workprint of the film contains about 3 hours of footage not included in the commercial release. The picture quality is pretty bad; it’s dark and muddled, but you can see everything pretty okay.

The sound is really great, however. The audio also falls out of sync at certain points because it is an extremely rough cut of the flick and that stuff wasn’t finalized yet.

Curiosity value: Three hours of extra footage.

If you’ve found any obscure video content hiding away online, please feel free to detail your discovery in the comments section below. Please do not link to any copyrighted material or torrents since those posts will be removed.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Later this month the third season of Homeland will premiere, and this time the number of downloads may even be higher as pirates have access to the premiere four weeks in advance.

Homeland’s season premiere turned up online a few hours ago and already 100,000 people have grabbed an advance copy via one of the Internet’s many torrent sites. While other TV-shows have come out ahead of schedule in the past, the source of this Homeland leak is rather unique, as the copy is not completely finished.

The leak is a so-called workprint, an unfinished copy that lacks some final touches. In two instances some visual effects of bomb craters are still to be added and the opening credits are also missing. In addition, there’s one scene where the voice of the actor is dubbed.

Since it is a workprint, the source of the leak is likely connected to a post-production studio. Unlike promotional screeners which are sent out to the press in advance, not many people have access to unfinished production work.

Somehow a copy leaked outside official channels, which are generally well protected, and eventually made its way to the scene.

Unlike regular scene releases, however, it was shared by an unknown group called “HOMELAND,” which is unusual as scene groups often take pride in their work. Whoever leaked it didn’t live up to scene standards though as the release was quickly “NUKED” by peers on a technicality.

Showtime hasn’t officially responded to the leak thus far, but it could be that they’re not too bothered by the free publicity. In recent months several TV insiders have gone on the record stating that piracy may actually help TV-shows, because of word-of-mouth promotion it generates.

And with such a unique leak, there is bound to be plenty of attention during the days to come.

The last time a high-profile workprint leaked was in 2009 when an unfinished copy of the movie Wolverine leaked a month early. The leak made headlines all over the world and 20th Century Fox quickly involved the FBI to find the leaker.

After eight months the FBI eventually arrested New York resident Gilberto Sanchez. Although he was most likely not the original source of the leak, in 2011 the then 48-year old Sanchez pleaded guilty to uploading a copy of the movie to Megaupload. He was later sentenced to one year in jail.

Whether a 20th Century Fox-like manhunt or a more relaxed HBO attitude will be adopted should become apparent in the near future. In any case, the FBI will be watching.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Last year this happened with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Three long weeks before the official premiere in the movie theaters an unfinished copy (Workprint) appeared online, and in advance of its release over a million people had already downloaded it via BitTorrent.

20th Century Fox wasn’t happy with this global sneak preview and asked the FBI and MPAA to investigate the case. This investigation eventually led to the arrest of a scapegoat, but the original leaker was never caught. Now, a year on from the Wolverine drama, Fox is again up in arms about a leaked and potentially unfinished movie.

Little over a month ago a workprint copy of Vampires Suck was uploaded to various torrent sites by the P2P release group KiNGDOM. This time around Fox wisely kept quiet about the leak. Behind the scenes, however, Fox’s legal department has been sending numerous takedown requests to torrent sites and Google. Interestingly, some of the URLs that were sent to Google are links to fake copies of the movie.

Vampires Suck, a parody of the popular Twilight series, premieres in the United States and Canada tomorrow, but despite Fox’s efforts the movie has already been downloaded over 100,000 times. According to commenters, the quality of of the audio and video is more than decent and the film appears to be complete, although one can not be sure if the scenes in the workprint will all be in the actual film.

It is not unlikely that Fox will be trying to find the source of the leak once again, and the first leads are presented to them by KiNGDOM. “Got this from a friend blurred the needed areas for security reasons and cropped others. It came in 5 reels at the beginning of each there was a countdown till the reel started so I had to cut them out too, as for filtering I did the normal,” we read in the release notes.

Whether the leak will end up hurting the success of the movie in the long run or not is open for debate. It might, if those who have downloaded the film don’t end up seeing it in the movie theater or on DVD, where they originally planned to do so. On the other hand, the leak might lead to some additional press coverage and thus serve as a useful promotional tool.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

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Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.