Quentin Tarantino‘s desire to bring the 70mm experience to audiences with "The Hateful Eight" was no small task, with The Weinstein Company helping theaters across the country install and learn how to use the projectors and equipment necessary to bring the movie to life. Especially in a moviegoing climate where digital has become the norm, Tarantino and the studio were arguably taking on a Herculean challenge. Releasing the picture during the holiday season, and trying to raises awareness for the 70mm movie with so many other high profile films for moviegoers to choose from, was even more daunting, not to mention the arrival of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" taking up much of the landscape. And Disney didn’t make it easy.
As you’ll recall, Tarantino claimed in December that Disney strong-armed Arclight Cinemas Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles to hold off on screening "The Hateful Eight," in order to keep "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," which opened a week earlier than Tarantino’s film, on its screens through the lucrative Christmas holidays. “It’s vindictive, it’s mean, and it’s extortion,” Tarantino said at the time. And he’s still pissed.
Harvey and Bob Weinstein‘s Miramax Pictures, which released "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill," was owned by Disney, and has since been sold. But Tarantino is certainly not wrong in suggesting Disney benefitted from his success, so sorry fanboys, don’t expect Tarantino to go near a Marvel movie anytime soon, if ever.
Meanwhile, Tarantino is still talking about "The Hateful Eight" itself, and he reveals that the Lincoln letter, which becomes something of a desired object in the movie, was barely in the first versions of the screenplay.
“In the first draft, it was just in the stagecoach and Major Warren brings it out and [he and Ruth] talk about it. And that’s it. It wasn’t brought up again. But that was just the first draft. I knew I’d have to deal with it, but I wasn’t ready," he told Yahoo. "And then, in the second draft, I dealt with it a little bit more midway through. And, on the last draft, I dealt with it at the very end. But it was always an evolving thing. I don’t really know exactly where it came from. It just grew from the back and forth between the characters.”
So, there you go. "The Hateful Eight" is up for three Oscars this weekend, including Best Original Score. Check out famed pianist Lang Lang (who was cut from the broadcast) performing Ennio Morricone‘s theme from the film below.