While the lead up to this month’s release of "The Hateful Eight" has largely focused on the epic scale of the revenge western and Quentin Tarantino‘s desire to present the film in 70mm, the director himself has also earned headlines. After attending a rally against police brutality this fall, Tarantino became the unlikely face of growing movement across the country calling for an end of what is becoming an epidemic of young black men being killed by police. His criticisms of the police, and the "blue wall of silence," earned indignation and outrage from officers and union officials, and for a moment, the publicity overtook the buzz around "The Hateful Eight." But Tarantino hasn’t backed down and continues to discuss both his film and the issue of police brutality at length.
"What The Flick?!"’s Ben Mankiewicz recently sat down with Tarantino for a fascinating, hour-long chat that touches on the aforementioned subjects and much, much more. The filmmaker addresses familiar subjects about his use of the n-word and his feelings about "Jackie Brown," but also elaborates on his thoughts about television. While he’s open to the medium, and concedes it might be an attractive option to present this scripts that are only getting denser and longer, he believes directors have a more difficult job trying to make resonant material in a feature length running time, versus the hours and hours of space a miniseries or series affords. Meanwhile, he also adds that "Kill Bill 3" is still a potential movie he could get to, and if it happened, the characters would also feel the gap in time from the 2003 and 2004 films.
It’s great stuff so check it out below. And after that, check out a thirty minute cast Q&A for "The Hateful Eight" with Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern. The film opens on Christmas Day.