The Hateful Eight pirate group apologise to Quentin Tarantino, but say leak served as free promotion

'We actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news than Star Wars'

Samuel L. Jackson in The Hateful Eight

After leaking The Hateful Eight, The Big Short, Creed, Steve Jobs and other high profile movies, the piracy group behind the ordeal has decided to apologise to the filmmakers, particularly Quentin Tarantino.

HIVE-CM8 started uploading films to the internet two weeks ago, beginning with the Tarantino’s latest - a film that, at the time, had yet to be publicly released.

The collective claim to have upwards of 40 films in its possession, according to Business Insider, all of which are ‘screeners’ (the copies sent out to judges of awards ceremonies like the Oscars and Golden Globes).

Breaking their silence, the group have now issued a statement saying they are “sorry for the trouble caused” by the leak.

“We didn’t plan to comment at all on recent events, but we feel now that we should,” HIVE-CM8 said in a statement written in broken English.

“Sorry to disappoint, but there was no hack or any such thing. We got the copies sold from a guy on the street, no decryption was needed. We were definitely not the only ones.”

They then attempt to justify why they put the screeners online, presenting themselves as the Robin Hoods of the internet: “We wanted to share this [sic] movies with the people who are not rich enough or not able to watch all nominated movies in the cinema.”

“Please support the producers and watch all movies in the cinema on a big screen, like you should do anyhow.”

The second half of the statement is then dedicated to talking about The Hateful Eight: “We feel sorry for the trouble we caused by releasing that great movie before cinedate even has begun.”

Again, the group attempt to justify the leak, writing how they have actually given the film more ‘hype’ than the latest Star Wars film.

“Since everyone is now talking about [The Hateful Eight] we don’t think the producers will loose [sic] any money at cinedate, and we tell you now why.

“We actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news, radio and in the papers than Star Wars, and the promotional costs for this were free.

“If let's say 5% of the people planned to watch this movie at cinemadate, due to this media push we unintentionally created, we believe that now 40% of the people will watch this movie in the cinema.

“[Be]cause everyone is talking about it and everyone wants to see the movie that created so much noise. This will push the cinema tickets sale for sure.”

HIVE-CM8 then praise the film, writing how it will “win by a mile” at the award ceremonies, proceeding to thank Tarantino “for this wonderful movie.”

Finishing off the bizarre statement, they apologise for leaking the film before public release and say they will not be uploading any more of the films they possess.

The leak was originally traced back to Point Break remake producer and Alcon Entertainment co-CEO Andrew Kosove, yet he claimed he had never seen or touched the screener.