There was controversy earlier this year when Quentin Tarantino announced that his new script, Western adventure The Hateful Eight, had leaked and that he’d decided not to make it for now. The writer/director did float the idea of releasing the screenplay in book form and now he has an extra plan for it: a live read at Los Angeles museum LACMA.
Tarantino apparently got the idea after he was approached by LACMA Film Independent boss Elvis Mitchell, who wondered whether the director would stand in for Jason Reitman, who has run Live Reads of classic film scripts such as Ghostbusters and Reservoir Dogs for a couple of years now, while Reitman was busy shooting. Tarantino didn’t end up doing it, but has since pitched Mitchell the idea of staging The Hateful Eight. "I recovered consciousness and brushed myself off, and I said, 'Yes, I think I can fit that in,'" Mitchell tells the LA Times.
Some of the plot details have also arrived with the new staging announcement: **The Hateful Eight **finds a diverse group of characters thrown together after a stagecoach is diverted from its route by a blizzard. Among those affected by the storm are a couple of bounty hunters, a renegade confederate soldier and a female prisoner.
With Tarantino planning to direct and cast the reading himself, it’s set for April 24 with a hefty $200 price tag for those wishing to attend. And security will be tight: no live streams or recordings will be offered and cell phones will be banned.
Though he said he was no longer planning to make the movie, there’s always a chance this could represent Tarantino seeing how the material plays before deciding to take it back out of the drawer. Wonder if he’s already on the phone to Christoph Waltz?