Well this is a bummer.
Quentin Tarantino’s next film was supposed to be a western called The Hateful Eight. Unfortunately, the script has leaked and a betrayed and depressed Tarantino is so upset that he has decided to shelve the film and publish it first. There’s a chance he may reconsider directing it somewhere down the road, but things are looking rather bleak at the moment.
As Deadline reports, Tarantino only gave the script to a select group of actors (Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern). He believes that one of the actors or their agents may have passed the script to someone who they shouldn’t have, eventually leading to the leak.
Here’s what he told Deadline:
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 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.
I can understand why Tarantino is upset. I can only imagine how much of a bummer that this news must be to him. It’s hard to believe that any of those actors would have betrayed him, so my guess is that one of the agents may be responsible.
But he did give some hope about changing his mind:
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.
Hopefully once he cools off he will reconsider making this film because it sounds like it could be something special. Especially considering what he did with Django Unchained.
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