As my colleague Jordan Crucchiola likes to say, Quentin Tarantino is a perfect filmmaker. His movies are the most meticulously crafted experiences being made today. His next film, The Hateful Eight will take that to a whole new level.
During the film’s Comic-Con panel the director—and star Samuel L. Jackson via video message—unveiled his plan to offer Eight as part of a cinematic “roadshow” that will show the movie in 70mm at a handful of theaters around the country. Also, as Tarantino announced to Hall H, his movie will have a score from Ennio Morricone that is the composer’s "first Western score in 40 years."
Tarantino unveiled a seven-minute teaser of Eight during the presentation that proved he has made a film worthy of traveling to any roadshow screening he holds. The movie essentially sets up a scenario where a group of naturally at-odds people—Confederate soldiers, black men who fought for the North, a bounty hunter, etc.—find themselves stuck in a post-Civil War blizzard and slowly turning into a powder keg. Watching what will surely be the ensuing shoot-out on anything other than the biggest format possible would be cheating yourself.
Tarantino shot the film on 65mm using lenses that, he told the Comic-Con crowd, were used to shoot Ben-Hur. “These lenses hadn’t been used since the movie Khartoum," Tarantino said during the panel’s video address. Shooting in this style, while also ensuring the movie would be released in 70mm and that 70mm prints would be made, made each performance “more vital,” Tarantino said. Judging by what was shown, that is true. It is also true that Hateful Eight looks like Tarantino is just as perfect now as he has ever been.
“When you see five frames of anything he does, you know who is doing it,” Eight star Kurt Russell said, addressing his director.
Here’s to seeing so many more than five frames of Hateful Eight on Dec. 25.
