Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar Afterglow Plagued by Piracy Suits, International Outrage

Not to be outdone by Jeff Bridges' $24,000 federal tax lien, Kathryn Bigelow has both domestic and international quarrels affecting her post-Oscar profile these days. And while you could argue that this year's groundbreaking Best Director isn't technically on the front lines of the war on Hurt Locker piracy, she faces a bit more personal skirmish in her attempt to make her follow-up, Triple Frontier.



First: The Hurt Locker, whose co-producers at Voltage Pictures are planning some hardcore litigation over the piracy that they say helped undercut the film's U.S. grosses. According to Voltage, Locker was affected by downloads that began some five months before the movie hit theaters last summer and which spiked after its Oscar glory two months ago. (Other Voltage films, including the Ashton Kutcher effort Personal Effects, are included in the forthcoming suit as well.) An attorney with Voltage's legal allies at something called The U.S. Copyright Group -- which has previously sued peer-to-peer poachers of far unsexier films like Uwe Boll's Far Cry -- did not say how many viewers it targeted, though an estimate ran "in the tens of thousands." At a possible judgment of at least few thousand dollars apiece, you can do the math. This thing might be a hit after all!

It appears no such silver lining presently exists for Triple Frontier, which would reunite Bigelow and Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal for a story about drug smuggling and terror financing in the border region shared by Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The latter two countries aren't having any of it, according to a pair of reports: "We all agreed that we were deeply indignant when we discovered that this project seeks to negatively portray this region shared by three South American countries," said Argentina's (ahem) tourism director, who insisted that his country would not cooperate with the production. Paraguay's own tourism boss echoed the complaint, adding that Bigelow's film would have "a negative economic impact."

Right? Can you imagine the devastation that might beset South American tourism if the director of history's lowest-grossing, highest-pirated Best Picture-winner were allowed to run wild on the triple border? I can just see the BitTorrent community canceling its flights en masse. Sigh. I guess it's back to Jordan.

· 'Hurt Locker' producers about to sue an army of pirates [THR Esq.]

· Paraguay and Argentina Won't Support Bigelow's New Film [NYT]