In Quentin Tarantino's ongoing feud with police unions—or "police mouthpieces," as Tarantino calls them—it's the cops escalating the situation today with a mysterious threat of a "surprise" for The Hateful Eight director.
You can almost hear the glee in the voice of Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, as you read his quote to TheHollywood Reporter. Whatever it is they have in store for Q.T., he's pretty giddy over it.
"Our offices make a living trying to stop violence, but surprise is not out of the question," Pasco told THR. "Something is in the works, but the element of surprise is the most important element. Something could happen anytime between now and [the premiere]. And a lot of it is going to be driven by Tarantino, who is nothing if not predictable. ... The right time and place will come up and we'll try to hurt him in the only way that seems to matter to him, and that's economically."
Economically? Is there some kind of a lawsuit in the works?
The whole situation jumped off after Tarantino marched with protesters against police brutality on Oct. 24 in Manhattan. A Tarantino quote from that day was widely circulated.
“This is not being dealt with in anyway at all,” Tarantino said. “That’s why we are out here. If it was being dealt with, then these murdering cops would be in jail or at least be facing charges.”
Not long after that, several police unions announced a boycott of Tarantino's films, including The Hateful Eight, which comes out on Christmas day. The issue, spokesmen said, was Tarantino calling police "murderers," but the director explained to the Los Angeles Times this week that he was only talking about certain cases.
"All cops are not murderers. I never said that. I never even implied that," he told the newspaper.
That apparently wasn't good enough for the Fraternal Order of Police, though, which happens to be the nation's largest police union with more than 330,000 full-time officers paying dues.
