We’ve already been tantalized to breaking point with a trailer and posters for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming movie The Hateful Eight, but the acclaimed director has floored us once again by announcing that two versions of the film will appear in cinemas.
The distinctiveness of the two renditions will be as follows: One will be a roadshow version shown in the Panavision 70mm format only in select cinemas, which features an overture, an intermission, with an overall run time of three hours and two minutes. The other version will be released two weeks later in standard cinemas, but will actually be six minutes shorter than the initial showing of The Hateful Eight that is scheduled for release in the US on Christmas Day.
“[I didn’t want] to treat the multiplex release like this left-handed version…but I actually changed the cutting slightly for a couple of the multiplex scenes,” Tarantino said to Variety. “[But what] I also didn’t know is how excited everyone was going to be about 70 (mm Panavision versions).”I think everybody is looking to see how we do in that first two weeks. But that’s also kind of exciting. I’m hoping that ‘Hateful Eight’ does well enough that that becomes, for the filmmakers who care, the new premier way to launch their movie in an exclusive way.”
Tarantino is following similar footsteps to other directors who’ve initially shown their films in the 70mm formats upon release, such as Kevin Smith with Red State, Steven Soderbergh with Che, Paul Thomas Anderson with The Master, and Christopher Nolan with Interstellar.
Featuring a star-studded cast full of Tarantino regulars like Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), Kurt Russell (Grindhouse), Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs) and Michael Madsen (Kill Bill), The Hateful Eight also sees Channing Tatum and Jennifer Jason Leigh receive the chance to work with the legendary filmmaker.
Likely to contain Tarantino’s snappy dialogue, intense action and sweeping cinematography, The Hateful Eight could well be an interesting mix of Django Unchained’s western-style visuals coupled with the deception and frenetic shootouts of Reservoir Dogs. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we see some of his finest shots immortalized on online galleries such as this, but the imminent Christmas day release of The Hateful Eight is bound to cement Quentin Tarantino as one of cinema’s greatest directors.
