Earlier this week, an advanced screening copy of Quentin Tarantino's revenge Western The Hateful Eight was leaked online to several file-sharing websites. The leak originated from an Academy Awards screener that was sent to Academy members for voting purposes, with other movies such as The Revenant, Steve Jobs, Joy, Brooklyn, Room and Carol also leaking through advanced screener copies. Today, The Hollywood Reporter reveals that The Hateful Eight leak originated from an advanced copy that was sent to a top Hollywood executive, Alcon CEO Andrew A. Kosove.

The site reports that the screener was sent to Andrew A. Kosove's office and it was signed for by an office assistant before it was leaked online. The FBI has been working in conjunction with The Hateful Eight's distributor, The Weinstein Company, and they were able to pinpoint the leak to Andrew A. Kosove's copy from the watermark on the DVD. FBI officials visited Alcon's Century City offices to determine the chain of events that lead to this leak. Here's what Andrew A. Kosove had to say in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

"I've never seen this DVD. It's never touched my hands. We're going to do more than cooperate with the FBI. We're going to conduct our own investigation to find out what happened."

A report from Web Watch reveals that an Alcon office assistant named "Tom" signed for the DVD copy. Later, a hacker identified as "Hive-CM8" uploaded The Hateful Eight file after the hacker tried to remove watermark technology from the DVD, which was manufactured by Deluxe. The hacker then posted a message in a file-sharing chat room, stating that The Hateful Eight would be one of 40 current movies that he or she would be uploading in the near future. It's possible that Andrew A. Kosove never did touch this DVD copy before it was pirated online.

Various reports reveal that anywhere between 200,000 and 600,000 copies of The Hateful Eight were downloaded on the first day it was available. Pirated physical copies of the DVD were seen on sale in street corners in China and various other markets. It isn't clear if the leaks of the other movies such as The Revenant, Steve Jobs, Joy, Brooklyn, Room and Carol were traced back to Andrew A. Kosove screener copies.

This isn't the first time that The Hateful Eight has dealt with a leak. Quentin Tarantino's original screenplay leaked online in January 2014, which resulted in the filmmaker suing Gawker Media for publishing the script online. The filmmaker almost halted his plans to direct this Western due to the leak, but thankfully he still went ahead with the production. What do you think about The Hateful Eight leak being traced back to a top Hollywood executive?