A reasonably well-connected guy with a friend on the 20th Century Fox who’s said to have regular contact with Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman (and who was questioned yesterday by an investigator regarding the Wolverine piracy) has been told that “within the last few days” — i.e., prior to the Wolverine work print appearing online — “Rupert Murdoch received a package at his New York office that contained a DVD copy of the leaked Wolverine.”

The Fox guy allegedly said that “most people involved are considering the delivery a big ‘eff you’ to Murdoch and Fox.”

I tried checking this with two off-the-lot sources who might have heard something, and with Murdoch’s office and Newscorp. corporate spokesperson. Everyone claimed they hadn’t heard the story and/or had no reason to believe it’s true. The story sounds too much like an urban legend. To me, at least. It’s too colorful and dramatic, like a scene out of a screenplay about the Wolverine work-print thievery, and a little bit like the opening of Zodiac.

You can’t spray a burst of automatic rifle fire at the roof and sides of a subway car, guys. You’ll have several rounds ricocheting all over over the place with an excellent chance of one of them hitting the shooter. Any New York subway-car kidnapper would consider this a no-brainer. There’s still time for The Taking of Pelham 123 director Tony Scott to cut this out of the master cut. It won’t open until June 12th.

The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3 trailer in HD

The above trailer is new — well, newish — and somewhat different than the one that appeared in mid February.

Variety‘s Tatiana Siegel and Elsa Keslassy are reporting that Quentin Tarantino‘s Inglourious Basterds has been invited to play in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and that Tarantino has accepted the offer. This is news? Tarantino has been saying for nearly a year (more?) that Basterds would be there.

A/C train downtown platform, 34th Street and 8th Avenue — 4.1.09, 8:55 pm. A Vimeo version.

The svelte Seth Rogen on The Daily Show joking about his weight loss (“It’s called bulimia, John!…to be able to stand on your own…your calves can support your torso!”); also referencing the Travis Bickle-ish ending in Observe and Report.

Thin Seth Rogen on The Daily Show joking about his weight loss. Her also references the Travis Bickle ending.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=222763&title=seth-rogen

Shouldn’t the copy read “see it with someone you’re ******ing”? (As in “dating, seeing, doing, playing, exploring, shtupping, manipulating,” etc.) If you want to stay within the bounds of grammatical correctness, see it with someone you **** can only mean “like, hate, love, fuck,” etc. These all sound too blunt. The first group of options sound much more layered and realistic — more reflective of emotional complexity and big-city relationships. Magnolia will be opening the The Girlfriend Experience on 5.22.

Responding to the online Wolverine leaking, HE reader JckNapier2 has floated a highly speculative, bordering-on-looney-tune theory that’s nonetheless fascinating to consider: “If Wolverine turns out to be terrible, immediate suspicion would fall on 20th Century Fox for leaking it to create an excuse for [a diminished] box-office performance. When I first wrote this I was just tossing it out there. But as a friend correctly noted, this could be a form of insurance fraud.

“If Fox has insured the film from all matter of maladies, could they cash in said insurance policy if they can somehow convince the carriers that the film flop because of third-party criminal action?

“As it is, if the film is a hit despite today’s leak then it becomes a goofy embarrassment. If the film flops, especially on opening weekend, the leak becomes one of the biggest entertainment stories of the year, period. As far as consequences, the only people responsible for this are the ones who leaked it, period. If Fox cracks down on critics and press screenings and/or public paid screenings, then there will be a huge press backlash.”

Another reader, continuing on this double-agent, cloak-and-dagger Le Carre jag, says “it’s more than likely that it was an ex-Fox employee who was attached to the production while there. In fact there’s a guy who fits the mold well.” He doesn’t mention a name. “Check MTV’s movie blog for quotes about Wolverine by an exFox vp. “I’m not saying it’s him but the timelines for the estimated age of work print and his departure do match up, more or less. Read his quotes back then had me scratching my head as to why an ex employee was giving quotes on a film he was effectively thrown off of. Just a thought.”

I like the insurance fraud scenario better.

Reminder — Russian president Dmitri Medvedev‘s last name is pronounced “Med-vyed-dyev.” That’s five syllables. Here’s a site with some aural coaching.

Arizona Star columnist Phil Vilarreal notes that “if you want access to Blu-rays with your Netflix account, expect to pay $4 more per month. That means if you’re like me and subscribe to the 3-discs at a time plan, your monthly cost will shoot up nearly 25 percent, from $16.99 to $20.99. Netflix recently informed customers about the rate hike via e-mail.

“Obviously this is no choice at all for HDphiles who need to feed their PS3s and 50-inch plasmas with the cutting edge of visual technology and see DVDs as repulsive anachronisms, hardly preferable to VHS.”

“But if you’re not entranced by 1080p it would be foolish to consent to the $4 tack-on. Upconverted DVDs look pretty damn good, after all, in 480p. I see this as a move by Netflix to get people to stop asking for Blu-rays and thus justify no longer having to carry them.”