For et par uker siden ble det kjent at Quentin Tarantino ^[1]s neste film skulle bli The Hateful Eight. Etter suksessen med Django Unchained ^[2] ønsket Tarantino å lage enda en western, etter å ha blitt bedre kjent med sjangerens utfordringer. I dag har det imidlertid fremkommet at regissøren avlyser produksjonen. Årsaken er at manuskriptet har havnet i feil hender.

Det er Deadline ^[3] som rapporterer den sørgelige nyheten. The Hateful Eight var ferdig skrevet og castingen var allerede begynt. Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen og Tim Roth var tiltenkt tre av rollene, og Tarantino mistenker nå at en av disse (bortsett fra Roth, av en eller annen grunn) har latt sin respektive agent lese manuskriptet:

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. (…)

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. 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! Starting this week, I’ll be setting meetings with publishers.

Quentin Tarantino vil stadig at fortellingen om The Hateful Eight skal se dagens lys, men nå blir det sannsynligvis i form av en bokutgivelse. Dette er en nedtur for fansen, som for en gangs skyld kunne begynne å glede seg til en ny Tarantino-film bare et snaut år etter den forrige.