The Hateful Eight

[Mitch Henessey]

Spoiler

An early synopsis from IMDB:

In post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunters try to find shelter during a blizzard but get involved in a plot of betrayal and deception.

The list of names (and nicknames) for The Hateful Eight:

Major Marquis Warren as The Bounty Hunter

John Ruth as The Hangman

Daisy Domergue as The Prisoner

Chris Mannix as The Sheriff

Bob as The Mexican

Oswaldo Mobray as The Little Man

Joe Gage as The Cow Puncher

General Sandy Smithers as The Confederate

For those, who don't know, the script for The Hateful Eight leaked earlier this year, and Tarantino almost dropped the project altogether, with the possibility of publishing it as a novel instead.

A little while ago, Jennifer Lawrence's name popped up as a rumored choice to join the cast, but Lawernce's publicist debunked the rumors, confirming she has no plans to join The Hateful Eight.

Nothing is 100% official as of now, but as it stands, Samuel L. Jackson (no big surprise), Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Dana Gourrier, James Parks, Denis Ménochet, Zoë Bell, Tim Roth, Amber Tamblyn, Walton Goggins, James Remar, and Kurt Russell are on the list for the cast.

I was looking forward to the possibility of Lawrence in a Tarantino film, but the final Hunger Games film is set for a release next year, so you have to believe any potential conflicts with Mockingjay Part 2 influenced her decision, if she had any interest in the movie. But if the list of names above appear in The Hateful Eight, Lawrence's absence won't hurt the film.

Django Unchained was a box office success with a worldwide gross of $425,368,238 (Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date), Tarantino won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and Christoph Waltz picked up his second Best Supporting Actor award for his performance as Dr. King Schultz.

I really enjoyed Django the first time around in theaters, but after that, I soured on the movie a little bit. A lot of that has to do with the excitement of watching Tarantino take his first shot at a Western, and when I compare Django to Tarantino's other films, there's a big gap for re-watch value.

Tarantino sticking to the Western genre for two films in a row feels strange, and maybe my feelings will change, when they show some actual footage from the movie in the first trailer, but I don't have foaming at the mouth levels of anticipation for this one.

I'm a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, and I'm intrigued by The Hateful Eight, but the Western genre is not uncharted territory for Tarantino anymore. I know it's only one film, but it's hard to have the same "can he pull it off?" feelings of anticipation the second time around.

Still, Tarantino is one of the best, when it comes to picking the right actors and actresses for his characters (going by the name of the character, Bruce Dern is an ideal fit for The Confederate). And he gets carried away sometimes (the tavern scene in Inglorious Basterds), but Tarantino is a master at writing dialogue.

Any thoughts or expectations for The Hateful Eight?

Did you enjoy Django Unchained?

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Seems like it's going to be a cross between Basterds and Django, which doesn't excite me all that much really. Both films had some good moments but both felt incredibly bloated too.

The cast doesn't have me all that excited to be honest aside from Goggins. While I don't mind actors and directors frequently working together, it can get a bit tiresome after a while and it seems that QT's early maverick days are now fully traded out for him to play it safe.

I know what Mitch means about Django losing its re-watch value but I think that each film post-Jackie Brown has the same quality (to varying degrees). Once again, for me, a big factor in this is that his latter films have been bogged down with too many dialogue heavy scenes that fuck with the momentum and pacing of the films.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Seems like it's going to be a cross between Basterds and Django, which doesn't excite me all that much really. Both films had some good moments but both felt incredibly bloated too.

True, and if we're comparing both, I'll definitely take Inglorious Basterds over Django. As far as acting goes, Christoph Waltz was the main highlight in both films, but Waltz as the evil Hans Landa packed a more powerful punch, if we're comparing him to Django's Dr. King Schultz.

The cast doesn't have me all that excited to be honest aside from Goggins. While I don't mind actors and directors frequently working together, it can get a bit tiresome after a while and it seems that QT's early maverick days are now fully traded out for him to play it safe.

I understand where you're coming from with Tarantino frequently working with the same set of actors, but the tandem of Samuel L. Jackson and Tarantino still works for me. Throughout his career, Jackson has delivered some of his best performances with Tarantino, and Stephen in Django was a nice change of pace. Instead of the usual angry loud-mouthed rebel, Jackson was obedient, devious, and loyal, and he nailed the character.

As far as Tarantino playing it safe goes, I'll admit I was surprised to learn the news of two consecutive spaghetti Western films. Tarantino is known for being the guy, who's not afraid to cross any lines or push buttons, but there's a chance he's settling into the genre, or maybe he's fallen into a lazy slump, where he doesn't have the push to venture into a different territory.

I know what Mitch means about Django losing its re-watch value but I think that each film post-Jackie Brown has the same quality (to varying degrees).

That's something else to think about. I can watch Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill. Vol. 1 (not a big fan of Vol. 2), Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown over and over again without any problems. I have to be in a specific mood for Basterds, and it's the same thing for Django.

Once again, for me, a big factor in this is that his latter films have been bogged down with too many dialogue heavy scenes that fuck with the momentum and pacing of the films.

Bingo. Tarantino's greatest strength is his writing, but a prime example of overkill is the tavern scene with Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) and the soldiers in Basterds. All the chatter and the constant back and forth "are you a spy?" innuendos kills the mounting tension for the expected brawl at the end of the scene.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Well, there's more news about the plot, and I'm starting to have some real doubts about this one:

Based on the public reading of the original script, The Hateful Eight is described as a combination between a Django Unchained-style Western and an Agatha Christie-esque whodunit. It is set in snowy Wyoming a few years after the Civil War. The title refers to a disparate group of travelers who are stranded together in a haberdashery when their stagecoach is forced to stop during a blizzard. The majority of the film takes place in that haberdashery, as the men and women engage in conversation and shootings and Jackson's character, an African-American Civil War veteran, tries to find out which one of them filed the coffee pot in the room with poison.

You can read the full story, and the details about precautionary measures to prevent another leaked script here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/quentin-tarantino-making-hateful-eight-746506

Tarantino's a master, when it comes to writing dialogue, but the thought of a film revolving around one isolated setting worries me. IF Tarantino delivers something similar to Reservoir Dogs, with flashbacks piecing the story together, while the main cast sits in the current setting (i.e. the warehouse in Reservoir Dogs), then I'll have more positive feelings for The Hateful Eight.

But if I'm using this piece of news as a sign of things to come, then it looks like we're headed for an extended version of the tavern scene in Inglorious Basterds. Maybe I'm alone on this, but I'm not looking forward to an hour+ of a dialogue heavy film, with the main characters playing mind games to catch the culprit, because it sounds like the type of film that'll bore me to tears.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

The official synopsis, and the full cast for The Hateful Eight:

Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren
Kurt Russell as John “The Hangman” Ruth
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue
Walton Goggins as Chris Mannix
Demian Bichir as Bob
Tim Roth as Oswaldo Mobray
Michael Madsen as Joe Gage
Bruce Dern as General Sanford Smither

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…

According to reports, Channing Tatum has a role in the film. No news about the name of his character or what type of character he'll portray, but he's in there. Tatum/Tarantino sounds like an odd combination. I had my doubts about Leonardo DiCaprio and Tarantino, and while I'll admit I was dead wrong about that, Channing Tatum is no Leonardo DiCaprio.