As an author, if there is one thing I can appreciate is the desire to “surprise” your audience with your new work(s).  You spend considerable time coming up with your story and massaging it until it is worth releasing and the very last thing you want is someone to post spoilery information about what you’ve done and render you work pointless.

Fortunately, as an author who works alone I am a self-contained unit.  Whatever scenarios and stories I come up with reside in my head and, unless I get hacked, my computer.  Until my latest work is officially released, no one other than I know what I’m up to.  At this point, I’ve finished the second full draft of my latest novel and, apart from this one hint I offered a little while back, at least with regard to when the story takes place, you have no idea what awaits you.

Because creating a movie involves many, many people both in front of and behind the cameras, the possibility of leaks is a very real one.

A while back a very early draft of the script to Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, The Hateful 8, was leaked to the internet and Mr. Tarantino, overcome with anger, stated he would abandon the film entirely.  He eventually changed his mind and the film will be released this December, but I totally get where he’s coming from.

Again: When you create a story, you want viewers/readers/what-have-you coming into your story knowing the bare minimum.  You want to surprise, shock, amuse, etc. them with what goes on.  How can you do that if they already know what they’re in for?

Unfortunately, because of the internet and the ability to instantly “talk” to the world at large, spoilers are becoming a big problem in the movie industry.  I recall when The Dark Knight Rises was in the process of being filmed and, when exterior shots were taken, people on the streets who happened to be close by produced videos of what was going on.  On the very day scenes involving Batman fighting Bane or Catwoman riding around on a Bat-Cycle were shot, the world at large was able to see what was going on.

Let me repeat and emphasize this: The world got to see scenes from a movie many months away from being released, much less finished, the same day they were being filmed!!!

Which brings us to the latest bit of spoilery territory.

Perhaps the most anticipated film of December (maybe even of this year) is the latest Star Wars feature.  Director J. J. Abrams and company have been extra careful in trying to keep the movie’s plot under wraps and, to my eyes, have been for the most part successful.

But spoilers come in all shapes and forms and someone at a Walmart in Iowa accidentally displayed for sale some Star Wars action figures tied to this film.  These figures, including that of the female character Rey, had potentially spoilery information.  A photograph of the toy was taken and released on the internet and…

Couple Takes Pics of Star Wars Figure They Bought, Gets DMCA Notice From Lucasfilm

Yikes.

For those who don’t know, big stores like Walmart, Target, Costco, etc. etc. receive merchandise sometimes a week or two before its “official” release date.  They hold this material and, on the date said merchandise is to be released, it is pulled out of their warehouse section and put up for sale.

As you can see from the article above, sometimes errors are made.

I’ve experienced the early release of materials before, though nothing quite as “exciting” as this.

A few years back (try to contain your excitement when you read this awe-inspiring story) I wandered into my local Costco and found the first BluRay release copy of the classic Bruce Lee film Enter The Dragon for sale.  I wound up buying it and smiled while I did, knowing that the BluRay edition wasn’t scheduled to be released until the following week and someone at Costco had mistakenly put it on sale early.

I’ll give you a few minutes to catch your breath after reading such an earth shattering story.

All jokes aside, I can’t fault Disney/Lucasfilms for being upset that a potential spoiler has found its way into general release before the film.  But neither can I fault those who posted pictures of the toy on the internet -they did legally buy the items, though it was mistakenly put on sale too early- nor the staff of the Walmart, who probably committed what was ultimately a very innocent mistake.

Just goes to show…there are many, many ways to spoil a story.