It's difficult to speculate if Quentin Tarantino will actually ever make his western movie Hateful Eight. Three months ago the filmmaker said that he was cancelling his plans to make the script his next directorial effort and said that he would be publishing the screenplay as a book... but he also added that there was a possibility he could return to the project some time in the future. Will Hateful Eight forever live on the page, or will we ever get to see it on the big screen? The answer is unknown, but we do know one thing: whatever version we see will be the best version that Tarantino could make.
The filmmaker hosted a one-night-only stage reading of the Hateful Eight screenplay this weekend, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, while speaking to the audience he revealed that the script was still very much a work in progress. Dissecting the structure for the crowd, Tarantino revealed that the plot is split into five chapters, and that what they would be hearing would be just the earliest version. "I am working right now on a second draft, he said. "This is the first draft." He continued by saying that the final chapter, called "Black Night, White Hell," was going to be either removed or completely rewritten.
The stage reading of the script was an all-star-packed affair, as Tarantino collected a large group of his actor friends to join him in the event. Joining the writer/director on stage was Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, Amber Tamblyn, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins, James Parks, Michael Madsen and James Remar. The event lasted for three hours.
The plot begins following a bounty hunter (played by Russell) who begin the story traveling to a small desert town called Red Rock to drop off a prisoner (Tamblyn) and collect a reward. Along the way they are joined by two others, but their journey is sidetracked when a blizzard forces them to take shelter in a haberdashery. In the store they encounter a general, an alleged hangman, a Frenchman and a cowboy. It's been reported that the scale of the film would have been much smaller than Tarantino's most recent projects and be more in-line with his first movie, Reservoir Dogs (which was almost entirely set in one location). THR called the story "equal parts comic and violent" and noted that the script made use of a lot of flashbacks.
What are your hopes for the future of Hateful Eight? Do you want to see Tarantino bring the story to life, or would you prefer to see him move on to something else? Answer our poll and tell us what you think!
