Now that the first reviews are beginning to pour in along with early impressions of the film’s 70mm roadshow showcase, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is imminent, and to stoke excitement, The Weinstein Company has today debuted an array of clips for the ultra-stylish Western.
Touting sly one-liners, violence and a cast of pantomime villains, the latest batch of footage trumpets just about every facet of Tarantino’s directing style that we’ve grown to love, though those who wish to go into theaters with a relatively blank slate ought to avoid watching every clip in fear of spoiling the surprise. Besides, the director has painstakingly captured the icy Wyoming landscapes for a 70mm release, meaning that the fruits of Tarantino’s labor won’t really shine unless viewed on the silver screen.
The Hateful Eight will bring together Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, and Demian Bichir when it opens via 70mm-fitted theaters on Christmas Day. It’ll expand into theaters nationwide at the turn of the year.
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…
