It’s been an unusually rocky road to production for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained follow-up The Hateful Eight. Of course, the director’s status as a cinematic legend ensured that the project received a huge amount of media scrutiny as soon as its title was unveiled back in January, but after a copy of the script was leaked early in development, it seemed possible that the filmmaker would abandon the project altogether.
Luckily, news got a little more promising for The Hateful Eight as time went on. A live reading of the script occurred to widespread acclaim back in April, and a few weeks later, we got word that Tarantino would be reuniting that same group of actors from the live reading to shoot the film in November. For those of you who need a refresher, that impressive crop of actors included Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, James Parks, Walter Goggins, Amber Tamblyn, James Remar, Zoe Bell, Denis Menochet and Dana Gourrier.
Now, Russell has piped up, confirming that The Hateful Eight will ride into theaters after all – just a little later than originally planned. Speaking about his involvement in the new to Netflix documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball on the Fox affiliate out of Philadelphia, Russell said:
“There’s a Tarantino project called The Hateful Eight that looks like it may go somewhere around the beginning of the year.”
The given reason for the delay is Russell himself, who is planning to shoot Bone Tomahawk in October. Depending on how much that time that project demands of him, starting The Hateful Eight the next month might be tricky. Of course, Russell isn’t the only star whose schedule Tarantino will have to work around. With actors like Jackson, Madsen, Roth and Goggins in the cast, no wonder it’s taking a little while to put The Hateful Eight together. The good news, though, is that it is finally on its way.
