The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that Academy Award-winning writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming feature The Hateful Eight will premiere in 70mm on December 25, 2015. The exclusive 2-week roadshow opening will be featured in glorious 70mm in select theaters nationwide. Following the 2-week engagement, the film will open with a theatrical digital release nationwide on January 8, 2016, while continuing to be shown in 70mm as well.
TWC and Tarantino’s presentation of The Hateful Eight will mark the widest 70mm release that the industry has seen in over twenty years. In 2012, TWC distributed Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed film The Master in this rare but celebrated shooting format. Beloved by filmmakers and cinephiles for its wide-scope and high-resolution image quality, 70mm stock captures nearly twice the landscape of the more common 35mm and digital styles. Because of its unique quality and its importance to the art of filmmaking, Quentin, TWC, and a number of other major Hollywood directors and studios have negotiated deals with Kodak to continue production of 70mm and other film formats despite their higher costs and complexity of use.
Commented TWC President of Theatrical Distribution and Home Entertainment Erik Lomis: “Our long relationship with Quentin Tarantino is one of the cornerstones of this company, so it’s incredibly special to us to be releasing his latest film in such a spectacular way on 70mm – we can’t think of a finer Christmas gift to be giving movie lovers and Tarantino fans this year.”
Cinematographer Bill Bennett (not involved in the film) attended a recent screening of test footage from the film and enthusiastically tweeted the following:
Saw Ultra Panavision 70, Tarentino’s “The Hateful 8”, projected in Anamorphic 70mm. Crazy beautiful. An entirely chemical analog process.
— Bill Bennett ASC (@CineBill) June 6, 2015
Ultra Panavision 70 “Hateful 8”, 1.25 times anamorphic squeeze, yielding an extremely wide aspect ratio of 2.76:1 pic.twitter.com/Efm5FA9BjK
— Bill Bennett ASC (@CineBill) June 6, 2015
The lead cast for The Hateful Eight will include:Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained), Kurt Russell (Escape From New York), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle), Walton Goggins (“Justified”), Demian Bichir (A Better Life), Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs), Michael Madsen (Kill Bill), and Bruce Dern (Nebraska). Written and directed by Tarantino, The Hateful Eight is produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Stacey Sher and Shannon McIntosh. Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein and Georgia Kacandes are executive producing, and Coco Francini and William Paul Clark are associate producing.
In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…
The Hateful Eight marks a continuation of the long-standing relationship between the celebrated filmmaker and the Weinsteins, who have collaborated on all of Tarantino’s films from Reservoir Dogs through Django Unchained.
