Guerrilla War

Now with Add On.

Innuendo and rumors, fueled by the trade press.

Growing anger in the struggling visual-effects community is raising concerns that some of its more extreme members could mount a cyber attack against a major vfx facility with the intention of damaging digital assets for one or more upcoming studio tentpoles.
At present, the evidence that such an offensive is in the works is slim but significant enough to prompt rumblings among vfx insiders regarding specific plans being in the offing.

If successful, a cyber attack that damaged or destroyed vfx assets could set back production by months, cost each pic affected tens of millions of dollars, and wreak havoc with release dates. Any vfx company that lost its studio assets would probably be out of business in short order, as it would never again be trusted with studio work.

Even an attack that only disrupted a company's internal network could slow production and add costs.
....

It's hard to know from which ass the above was extracted, but it's always good to invent threats out of thin air. As if studios weren't paranoid enough already.

As a CGI supervisor wrote yesterday:

This article dropped my jaw, not the least because it seems to be sourced entirely from rumor. But then, I forget that that's what the Hollywood press is paid to do.

Add On: The author of the Variety piece, David Cohen, now tweets:

There's an erroneous headline mentioning "artists," which I didn't write. Apologies to #vfx artists 4 that. ...

Ah yes. Kick them while they're on the ground in the fetal position. Most excellent.