Tarantino's ditched Western could have been one of his best.
Quentin Tarantino has revealed this week that he has shelved his latest movie project, Hateful Eight, after the scripts that he carefully handed out to a trusted few leaked out, bringing unwanted attention to the director. The filmmaker revealed to Deadline that the script, which was still in its embryonic stages, was handed out to the actors he was courting as leads.
Quentin Tarantino Dropped His Latest Script After It Leaked.
The Hateful Eight script was given to six people, including Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and Tim Roth but was leaked after one of the actors' agents passed it around. Soon after, Tarantino's longtime agent Mike Simpson began getting phone calls from agents looking to pitch their clients for roles in the proto-movie and the furious director felt compelled to shut the whole project down.
Cheer up, Quentin! Here are five other major script leaks to make you feel better.
Now that the story is out that the Oscar-winning Django Unchained director is not going ahead with Hateful Eight, the script has been photocopied dozens of times and passed around. The Wrap claims to have obtained one of the copies, and laments that sadly for Tarantino's fans, Hateful Eight's intriguing premise could have made for one of the filmnmaker's most visually dramatic movies.
Samuel L Jackson Would Have Almost Certainly Had A Lead Role In 'Hateful Eight.'
The movie opens on a sprawling Wyoming vista, and Tarantino sets the scene: "A breathtaking 70mm filmed (as is the whole movie) snow covered mountain range." From then on, the story is reportedly set mainly indoors where it has the atmosphere of a "tense stage play."
The script is an ensemble western with big parts for most of the director's favourite actors, including Madsen and Dern as well as the seasoned Tarantino players Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson. The Wrap speculates that Jackson and Madsen would likely be cast as bounty hunters returning human bounty to a town called Red Rock in exchange for large sums. The characters, a former major in the Union army and a man named John Ruth, apparently dominate the first two of the script's five chapters.
Tarantino Favourite Christoph Waltz Would Have Been Given A Role In 'Hateful Eight.'
The men run into southerner Chris Mannix on the road, and three of them, plus their driver, a prisoner, and three dead bodies rock up at a haberdashery to take shelter from an oncoming blizzard. The store's owner is nowhere to be found and instead four men, "a Southern general (likely Dern), an alleged hangman, a Frenchman named Bob and a cowboy named Joe Gage" are there. Then the film really kicks off.
Though the film would have been set on a much more modest set than we're used to from the Kill Bill director, the intense dialogue and bloody action scenes are up there with Tarantino's best. The movie would have been visually spectacular too - with notes that the unusual and expensive 70mm filming format (as seen used in 'The Master') would have perfectly framed the high tension drama of Hateful Eight.
The Director Seems To Be Standing Strong On His Decision.
Despite at first rashly brushing off the idea of continuing with the project by saying "I've got 10 more where that came from," Tarantino did admit that there was a chance the western could happen anyway. "If the muse calls me later to do it, we'll do it [...] It's my baby," he said. "I could totally change my mind; I own the f***ing thing," he said.
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