The Hateful Eight
By Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight is finally being widely released today after a limited release on Christmas Day.
In November 2013, Tarantino announced The Hateful Eight on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno:
I can’t talk that much about it, but I will say one thing, I haven’t told anyone about this publicly, but I will say the genre. It’s a western. It’s not a Django [Unchained] sequel, but it’s another Western. I had so much fun doing Django [Unchained] and I love westerns so much, that after I taught myself how to make one, it’s like “OK, now let me make another one now that I know what I’m doing”.
The title The Hateful Eight was revealed on 12th January 2014. On 21st January, Deadline reported that The Hateful Eight‘s screenplay was leaked by one of a few colleagues and their representatives given access. Tarantino’s agent, Mike Simpson, began receiving calls from casting representatives about the characters, leading to the discovery of the leak, prompting Tarantino to cancel production, adapt The Hateful Eight into a novel and consider revisiting The Hateful Eight after five years. Speaking to Deadline, Tarantino said:
I’m very, very depressed. I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today. I gave it to one of the producers on Django Unchained, Reggie Hudlin, and he let an agent come to his house and read it. That’s a betrayal, but not crippling because the agent didn’t end up with the script. There is an ugly maliciousness to the rest of it. I gave it to three actors: Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth. The one I know didn’t do this is Tim Roth. One of the others let their agent read it, and that agent has now passed it on to everyone in Hollywood. I don’t know how these fucking agents work, but I’m not making this next. I’m going to publish it, and that’s it for now. I give it out to six people, and if I can’t trust them to that degree, then I have no desire to make it. I’ll publish it. I’m done. I’ll move on to the next thing. I’ve got 10 more where that came from. I am not talking out of both sides of my mouth, because I do like the fact that everyone eventually posts it, gets it and reviews it on the net. Frankly, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I like the fact that people like my shit, and that they go out of their way to find it and read it. But I gave it to six motherfucking people! Starting this week, I’ll be setting meetings with publishers. I could totally change my mind; I own the fucking thing. But I can tell you, it’s not going to be the next thing I do. It’s my baby, and if the muse calls me later to do it, we’ll do it. I was thinking about the idea of maybe publishing it before I made it, but now that deal happens for sure, and I’m not doing it next. The idea was, I was going to write two scripts. I wasn’t going to shoot the Western until next winter, and I have been full of piss and vinegar about the other one. So now I’ll do that one. I hadn’t given it to Christoph, I haven’t given it to Sam Jackson. I gave it to three motherfucking actors. We met in a place, and I put it in their hands. Reggie Hudlin’s agent never had a copy. It’s got to be either the agents of Dern or Madsen. Please name names.
The leaked screenplay wasn’t watermarked to the six people trusted with access, making the source almost impossible to trace. On 19th April, Film Independent arranged a live reading of the first draft as part of Live Read. Tarantino said another two drafts were to be written with a different ending.
The screenplay’s now been released online legitimately and is available to read from The Weinstein Company Guilds as part of their Oscar campaign. The Weinstein Company are hoping the Oscars nominate The Hateful Eight for Best Original Screenplay.
Winner: Best Original Screenplay - National Board of Review
Nominee: Best Screenplay - Golden Globe Awards
Nominee: Best Original Screenplay - San Diego Film Critics Society
