Last week Samuel L. Jackson's script for the big-budget superhero actioneer The Avengers was stolen and later offered up as a sacrifice to multiple film and comic book websites.
Most sites weren't as opportunistic as the thief had hoped and smartly turned down the offer; however, several pages from the shooting script surfaced online anyway after one site (which shall remain linkless) opted to photograph them to prove the offer was legitimate.
The Internets got a free chance to see watermarked pages detailing Bruce Banner's (played by Mark Ruffalo) transformation into the Hulk in front of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow while Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) search a giant boiler room.
Unfortunately for all of us, we'll never get to see those pages materialize onto the big screen. Disney has reportedly cut the scene from the film and has The Avengers screenwriting duo of Zak Penn and Joss Whedon, who is also directing, rewriting the sequence. There have even been rumors that the House of Mouse shut down production on the film until the scenes could be rewritten. Disney has denied such claims.
Filming on The Avengers began last week in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and sources on the ground chiming in from FilmFanReview stand by the halted production claim as "fact not rumor."
Thor's Chris Hemsworth indicated that he has not been informed of any revisions to the film's shooting schedule and that his start date has not been affected by the leak or the alleged rumors of production shutting down.
If that were the case, then we'd hope that the Norse god would join Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman and make everyone's fantasy fairy tale come true.
The Avengers is still scheduled for a May 4, 2012 release.
[via Slash Film]
