EXCLUSIVE: Days after Disney revealed that it was investigating a reported hack of its internal Slack workplace, the producers behind the upcoming indie Eyes in the Trees starring Anthony Hopkins say they has been targeted in a ransom-seeking data breach.
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Producer Daemon Hillin ( Which Brings Me to You ) tells Deadline that he has received disturbing and very detailed emails from a Korean Zombie address that said 18 minutes of video footage from his film had been hacked. The breach constitutes all of Hopkins’ scenes that were shot in Los Angeles during last year’s strikes. (The film was awarded an interim agreement by SAG-AFTRA.)
The email included screenshots of Hopkins from the film, which is a reimagining of the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau , along with a list of the film’s investors and other producers. BGG Capital and Landon B. Gorman are the money behind the film written by B. Harrison Smith ( Where the Scary Things Are ) and Mike Manning ( Son of the South ). Hillin is producing alongside Artisha Mann-Cooper ( Tripped Up ) and Sasha Yelaun ( Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose ).
Hillin and his fellow producers were given until July 22 to pay $200,000 in crypto or the perpetrators would release the footage to the public as well as “Netflix, Amazon, Peacock, Sony, AMC, Lionsgate, and Blumhouse.”
But while Hopkins’ scenes are somewhat spoiler-y — he portrays a geneticist who has been isolated after the government stopped funding his research following the violent outbreak of one of his test subjects — Hillin is not going to pay the ransom.
“We’re making this movie no matter what,” says Hillin, who added he contacted the FBI and the Santa Monica Police Department, along with local and state politicians, about the breach. “They’re not going to stop us. And we are resilient. It’s not the first time I’ve been extorted, and it probably won’t be the last time I’ve been extorted. So we’re moving on. The most important thing was to call my financiers to let them know what’s going on. And with their support, that’s the way we’re making this movie. I’m blessed that these people believe in us, believe in me, and believe in the project.”
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“Our film is going to be something completely different than what the string of Anthony Hopkins’ scenes are going to be,” Hillin adds. “They took unedited footage to try to ruin us. The magic of the movie is the artistic people behind it that are going to put it together. I don’t think [the breach] is going to devalue the movie at all.”
Hillin is still setting up the rest of the movie that’s been hit with delays because of the contraction going on in Hollywood. The story follows two renowned filmmakers and their crew who embark on a journey of discovery, only to find their excursion turned into a fight for survival for not just themselves, but the entire human race.
“Our director has a great vision for it,” he says. “And visually, it’s just going to be stunning because we’re shooting it in the forest and jungles of Thailand. The movie is like a hidden gem.”
A seminal work of science fiction published in 1896, The Island of Dr. Moreau has inspired numerous screen adaptations over the years including 1932’s Island of Lost Souls and 1977’s The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Burt Lancaster. Most famous among them is the 1996 film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer, which between issues with cast, weather and budget remains one of the most infamously challenged productions in film history.
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