I have to say, this smells of something else considering Quentin Tarantino‘s screenplay for Django Unchained was online almost immediately and eventually went on to win the writer/director his first screenplay Oscar since winning for Pulp Fiction script back in 1995. Yet, Tarantino tells Deadline.com that after his latest screenplay for the ensemble Western, The Hateful Eight, was leaked to agencies after giving it to a small circle of actors, he has decided the film won’t be his next project.
“I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter,” he tells Deadline. “I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today.” Tarantino reportedly found out when his agent, Mike Simpson, began receiving phone calls from agents pitching their clients for roles in the film.
As for the leaker, Tarantino says, “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.” He continues:
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 ten more where that came from.
So this is about an agent leaking it in Hollywood, not necessarily online, where I suspect it will arrive sooner rather than later, well before Tarantino gets around to publishing it. However, knowing Tarantino I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up more than just a screenplay being published, and perhaps something of a graphic novel.
As for the inevitable online scrutinization the script would surely receive, Tarantino says that isn’t the reason he’s shelving the project. He says it’s more about the betrayal. “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,” Tarantino told Deadline. “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.”
Tarantino doesn’t officially say we won’t ever make The Hateful Eight, which he was reportedly eying Christoph Waltz for a part along with Dern. As for what will be next, he apparently has something in the hopper, “I wasn’t going to shoot [The Hateful Eight] until next winter, and I have been full of piss and vinegar about the other one. So now I’ll do that one.”
What is the other one? Personally I hope it’s the 1940s gangster film he’s been discussing and I’d love to see him go full, black-and-white film noir. As for further speculation, Deadline]
