Quentin Tarantino Script Leak Forces Furious Director To Shelve Western
Quentin Tarantino has been forced to shelve his upcoming Western, The Hateful Eight, after the film’s script was leaked across Hollywood.
The Oscar-winning director is apoplectic that despite the fact that he had only shown his work to three actors and their agents, the screenplay still managed to find its way into untrustworthy hands.
Tarantino spoke to Deadline about his frustration, confirming that he’d only given it to half a dozen people, before adding that he was “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,” he remarked. “I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today.”
Tarantino learnt that his script was out in the cinematic ether after his longtime agent, Mike Simpson, started to receive phone calls from his peers pitching their clients for different roles in the Western.
The big question now is who could have broken Tarantino’s trust? The Pulp Fiction filmmaker explained, “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.”
However, despite being a tad peeved at Hudlin’s misjudgement, he admitted, “That’s a betrayal, but not crippling because the agent didn’t end up with the script.”
Tarantino couldn’t contain his anger as he continued his tale though, erupting, “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 f*****g agents work.”
Tarantino also feels aggrieved because he was yet to even give his work to two actors that he’d specifically written parts for in the movie too.
“I hadn’t given it to Christoph [Waltz], I haven’t given it to Sam Jackson,” he said. “I gave it to three motherf****** 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.”
Because of this grave injustice, Tarantino won’t be bringing The Hateful Eight to the big screen now, but he still wants his fans to read his vision, so he now plans to publish it just as a script.
“I’m not making this next. I’m going to publish it, and that’s it for now,” he noted. “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.”
However, Tarantino fans shouldn’t be too perturbed, because he’s already moved onto the next project. “I’ll move on to the next thing,” he stated. “I’ve got 10 more where that came from. The idea was, I was going to write two scripts. I wasn’t going to shoot the Western until next winter, and I have been full of pi** and vinegar about the other one. So now I’ll do that one.”
