Well, so much for that.

It was recently announced that Quentin Tarantino’s next film was set to be The Hateful Eight, a western thought to be a riff on classic team-up movies like The Magnificent Seven. But yesterday we received word that the project has fallen apart. Why? Personal betrayal.

The director has revealed that he gave the script to exactly six people. Six! And they were all folks he trusted implicitly. Then one of them did the unthinkable: They carelessly allowed it to leak. Tarantino’s people started to receive suggestions from agents about which clients of theirs would be good for specific parts in a script that no one was supposed to have had access to yet.

“I’m very, very depressed. I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today,” Tarantino told Deadline. So who are our suspects? Which six people had access, and which one might be the culprit?

“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. That’s a betrayal, but not crippling because the agent didn’t end up with the script. 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 10 more where that came from.”

It’s believed that it may have been Bruce Dern’s agent that dropped the ball. The Nebraska star’s agency, CAA, has denied any involvement in the leak- but considering he’s the only person that had it that doesn’t have a prior relationship with Tarantino, all eyes are on the newbie. Though Tarantino mentions Madsen as a possibility, too. “I gave it to three motherfucking actors. We met in a place, and I put it in their hands. Reggie Hudlin’s agent never had a copy. It’s got to be either the agents of Dern or Madsen. Please name names.“

But the root of the issue here, to be clear, isn’t really the leak. “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. Frankly, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” the director said. “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!“

So this is sad. I know many folks, myself included, were intrigued to see what he had in mind for The Hateful Eight. All of his movies are big events for film buffs, but perhaps this will work out for the best. He did, after all, just make a western with Django Unchained, and with several high profile westerns in the Hollywood pipeline it might have faced some audience fatigue. MGM is looking to make a new version of the aforementioned Magnificent Seven, and there’s also Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways To Die In The West on the way. It might be better to see QT tackle something completely new.

In his talk with Deadline, though, he did admit that the project isn’t completely dead. He says he may circle around back to it in another 5 years, which should offer some solace to his disappointed fans.

SOURCE: Deadline

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