Movie bosses behind The Hurt Locker are preparing to sue thousands of internet users who illegally downloaded the Oscar-winning film.

Executives at Voltage Pictures, the company which financed Kathryn Bigelow's war drama, have teamed up with the U.S. Copyright Group, an American organization which is spearheading a litigation campaign against illegal file-sharers.

Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer for the U.S. Copyright Group, has confirmed producers will be filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against tens of thousands of web surfers who illegally accessed the picture, which was leaked online five months before its U.S. release date in 2009.

The U.S. Copyright Group has already filed lawsuits over several other films, including 2008's Far Cry and Call of the Wild 3D, but Dunlap is convinced the imminent legal action over The Hurt Locker will take the anti-piracy campaign to a much higher level.

He tells the Hollywood Reporter, "You can guess that relative to the films we've pursued already, the order of magnitude is much higher with Hurt Locker."

The Hurt Locker won six Academy Awards this year including the coveted Best Picture Oscar, but the film only grossed approximately $16 million in the U.S.