Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.” SCREENGRAB FROM YOUTUBE
The fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise “Dead Men Tell No Tales” will finally be released in cinemas next week.
However, a group of unidentified hackers are claiming to have a copy of the highly anticipated film, and is now threatening Disney studios to leak it to the public.
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed the dire news to the Hollywood Reporter, during a town hall meeting with ABC studio employees in New York City.
According to the executive, the hackers were demanding an unspecified amount in ransom, or else they would release five minutes of the film and 20-minute segments online.
Despite the threats, Iger confirmed that Disney refused to give in to the demand of the “cyber-extortionists” and would not release a dime.
Furthermore, the Disney chief disclosed that the hackers were asking a huge sum to be paid through the Bitcoin payment system.
Meanwhile, the demand on Disney is the latest of several extortion plots targeting big studios in recent months.
Recently, 10 episodes of the the latest season of the series “Orange Is the New Black” have been released in the torrent site Pirate Bay, six weeks before its supposed official debut on June 9.
This came after internet-television giant Netflix refused to pay an undisclosed amount. Khristian Ibarrola /ra
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