Though The Hateful Eight is only Quentin Tarantino's second entry in the weird and wonderful world of westerns, the star-stacked holiday affair actually has quite a bit in common with his previous film (and western debut) Django Unchained. Speaking with David Poland in a recent interview, Tarantino revealed the very Django beginnings of what would eventually become The Hateful Eight.
"After doing Django I knew I didn’t want to do any Django movie sequels or anything, but I liked the idea of there being several paperbacks that could be the further adventures of Django or maybe go back in time," Tarantino said. In fact, the iconic director was apparently inspired enough to begin work on his first novel, a Django Unchained spin-off. "I hadn’t written a novel before and I thought I would just try my hand at writing a Django paperback," he said. "At the time it was called Django in White Hell [and] instead of [Samuel L. Jackson’s] Major Warren it was Django."
As my book collection doesn't include anything called Django in White Hell, those plans didn't exactly come to fruition. Instead, they becameThe Hateful Eight:
I was introducing such rough characters in this piece, and there would be even more disreputable characters waiting for them. At a certain point I realized 'Well you know what’s wrong with this piece? It’s Django. He needs to go.' Because you shouldn’t have a moral center when it comes to these eight characters.
The Hateful Eight, which doesn't include Django, opens on 100 70mm-friendly theaters on Dec. 25. Everyone else, as just announced, can catch it on New Year's Day.
